TL;DR — Self-audit: what your aesthetic clinic website should (and shouldn't) have
Doctor communication
☐ Practice/skills/background info is honest — no comparison with other practitioners, nothing pushing unnecessary care
Team & titles
☐ Titles shown match each practitioner's actual registered qualifications
☐ "Médecine esthétique" and any diploma shown beside a doctor's name have been checked against the titles the Ordre permits. A DIU does not, by itself, confer specialist status; the Ordre has described a VAE pathway as proposed, not yet settled
☐ Botox injectors listed are limited to the 5 ANSM-recognised specialties (plastic/reconstructive/aesthetic surgery, dermatology, face & neck surgery, maxillofacial surgery, ophthalmology)
☐ Laser/IPL hair removal (non-therapeutic) is performed only by doctors, or by nurses/estheticians holding the mandatory training certificate
Fees
☐ Usual fees, payment methods and non-discriminatory access are stated clearly — no comparison with competitors
☐ Cosmetic surgery pricing is framed as indicative only, with the mandatory 15-day reflection period after a real quotation — that period isn't applied to non-surgical treatments
Before/after & reviews
☐ No image implies a guaranteed result
☐ Patients cannot be identified in photos or videos published as part of a doctor's professional communication — consent alone doesn't settle this
☐ No patient ratings/testimonials embedded in a doctor's own professional page
Botox & fillers
☐ No named prescription medicine advertised to the public
☐ Filler pages describe the consultation and treatment, not a product for sale — supply is restricted to doctors (and, for medical-use devices only, dentists) for professional use, and to patients only on a doctor's prescription
☐ Public advertising for a skin-filling product has prior ANSM authorisation; advertising a surgical laser generator to healthcare professionals has a separate prior-authorisation rule — checked apart from the treatment page itself
Search & influencers
☐ No paid or engineered priority placement for a doctor's own listing
☐ Hashtags aren't used to seek priority visibility or specifically target potential patients — the Ordre treats this as raising the same concern as paid priority placement
☐ Any influencer partnership avoids the procedures the commercial-influence law restricts
Facility type
☐ The site is clear about what it represents — private practice, authorised cosmetic-surgery facility, or centre de santé — since each has different rules
☐ A centre de santé site names all practising doctors/dentists, including part-time and replacement staff
Forms, chat, WhatsApp
☐ First-enquiry forms don't ask for more than needed (no medical history for a callback request)
☐ It's clear who reads messages, where they're stored, how long they're kept
☐ WhatsApp isn't presented as a secure channel for clinical photos or medical history
☐ If a supplier hosts personal health data collected in the course of care on the clinic's behalf, that hosting service is HDS-certified
Cookies & marketing
☐ Non-essential/advertising trackers wait for consent before loading
☐ An enquiry doesn't automatically add someone to a marketing list
Legal notices
☐ Legal notices and privacy information are easy to find
OK? If so please translate very accurately in french, should be easy for you as u have everything
Aesthetic clinic website rules in France: what can you publish?
A French aesthetic clinic website can explain treatments, introduce practitioners, show fees and help patients arrange a consultation. It can also raise questions that are easy to miss. Who is qualified to perform the treatment? Is the page describing a service or promoting a medicine? What happens when someone sends a photograph through a form or chat?
There is no single rule for every aesthetic business in France. Doctors, authorised cosmetic surgery facilities and legally defined centres de santé have different obligations. Medicines and medical devices have separate advertising rules too.
Doctors can explain their work online
French doctors may communicate with the public through a website. They can describe their skills, professional background, practice and working conditions. Under Article R.4127-19-1 of the Public Health Code, that information must be honest and must not mislead patients, compare practitioners or encourage unnecessary care.
A treatment page can explain what a procedure involves, who performs it, what happens during a consultation and what its limits are. It should give patients useful information without promising a result. The French Medical Council’s guidance also asks doctors to keep their online information accurate and up to date.
Practitioner profiles, titles and prices
A team page should tell patients who will see them and what that person is qualified to do. French rules prohibit doctors from using unauthorised titles or presenting their qualifications in a way that misleads the public. Patients can check a doctor’s registration through the Medical Council’s directory.
This matters when using médecine esthétique beside a practitioner’s name. The Medical Council has recognised a new inter-university diploma, or DIU, in aesthetic medicine and has discussed a route to assess experienced practitioners. But holding a DIU does not, by itself, make someone an officially recognised medical specialist. Check the practitioner’s registered qualifications and the exact title they may use before publishing their profile.
Fees should not be left out. When a doctor presents their activity on a website, Article R.4127-53 requires information on their usual fees, accepted payment methods and access to care without discrimination. It must be clear, precise and non-comparative. Publishing fees is different from running a countdown offer for a medical treatment.
For cosmetic surgery, an online price cannot replace an individual quotation. After receiving a cosmetic surgery quotation, the patient has a minimum 15-day reflection period. This should not be presented as a rule for every non-surgical treatment.
Laser and IPL hair removal: name the person performing it
A website offering laser or intense pulsed light (IPL) hair removal should describe its team accurately. Under the 2024 decree on non-therapeutic hair removal, these procedures may be performed by doctors, registered nurses and professionally qualified beauty practitioners. Nurses and beauty practitioners must complete the required training. This rule concerns non-therapeutic hair removal; it should not be applied to every medical laser procedure.
The provider must check for contraindications and give the customer information about expected effects, risks and eye protection. It must provide an information sheet by the first session and keep a signed copy. Serious incidents must be reported. These duties do not mean the signed sheet has to be displayed on the website, but a treatment page should not hide the risks it explains. The 2025 training order gives further detail on training for nurses and beauty practitioners.
Before-and-after photos and patient reviews
France does not have a simple rule banning every before-and-after image. The Medical Council’s guidance is more precise: doctors should avoid images that suggest a guaranteed result rather than showing what is normally expected. It also says patients must not be identifiable in photos or videos published as part of a doctor’s professional or educational communication.
Before adding a results gallery, ask whether the images are representative and fairly presented. Could someone recognise the patient? Does the page explain enough about the treatment to avoid a misleading impression? Permission to use a photograph does not settle all of those questions.
The same Medical Council guidance says doctors should not feature patient ratings, comments, thanks or testimonials in their own professional communication. Copying five-star reviews onto a doctor’s treatment page is therefore a poor fit, even when the reviews are genuine.
Botulinum toxin and hyaluronic acid fillers follow different rules
Botulinum toxin is a medicine. In France, prescription-only medicines cannot be advertised to the public. A branded product name in a menu, promotional headline, offer or paid ad needs review for that reason. Describing a consultation and its possible treatment options is different from building a page to sell a named medicine. The rule is in Article L.5122-6.
The website must also be accurate about who administers it. The French medicines agency, the ANSM, identifies the medical specialties authorised for aesthetic botulinum toxin injections. These include plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery; dermatology; face and neck surgery; maxillofacial surgery; and ophthalmology. A general claim that any practitioner with an aesthetic medicine DIU can inject it would go beyond that guidance.
Hyaluronic acid fillers are governed differently. The 2024 decree restricted the supply of injectable hyaluronic acid products. As of 2026, the relevant provisions are Articles R.5211-11 and R.5211-12; the original article numbers were changed in April 2026. These products may be supplied to doctors for professional use or to their patients on prescription. Certain medical devices may also be supplied to dentists and their patients under the same conditions.
That is a supply rule, not a ban on explaining filler consultations online. Ameli also states that aesthetic hyaluronic acid injections are performed by doctors; dentists may perform injections to treat a disease. A clinic page should identify the practitioner accurately and leave the treatment decision to the consultation.
Medical device advertising needs its own check
The medicine rule above is not the whole story. France also regulates advertising for medical devices, including relevant filler products and equipment. The Public Health Code’s device advertising provisions address promotion of a device separately from a doctor’s communication about their practice.
Under the current list in the order of 24 September 2012, public advertising for skin-filling products requires prior ANSM authorisation. The list also includes surgical laser generators, but under advertising to healthcare professionals. That distinction matters: it would be inaccurate to say this order requires prior ANSM authorisation for every public laser treatment page.
A page explaining a consultation is not automatically an advertisement for the product or machine used. If a campaign promotes a named filler or device, though, the clinic should review both the product advertising rules and the professional rules that apply to its practitioners.
Paid search placement and influencer campaigns
A doctor can publish clear pages that patients find through a search engine. Priority placement is a separate question. Article R.4127-80 prohibits a doctor from obtaining priority placement for information about them in internet search results, whether through payment or another method. The Medical Council cautions that promotional hashtags used to reach potential patients can raise the same concern.
Influencer partnerships also need specific review. France’s law on commercial influence prohibits influencers from directly or indirectly promoting certain aesthetic procedures that may pose health risks, as well as cosmetic surgery interventions covered by the law. A sponsored creator post cannot simply reuse the clinic’s treatment copy.
Cosmetic surgery facilities and centres de santé
A facility performing cosmetic surgery needs the authorisation required by Article L.6322-1. That article also addresses commercial communication made in favour of the authorised facility. Its wording changed in 2023: it now targets communication that is unfair, harms public health or is liable to encourage minors to use the facility’s services. Older summaries may still describe the previous, broader wording.
A centre de santé is a particular legal type of organisation, not simply a business that calls itself a health centre. Article L.6323-1-9 prohibits advertising in favour of these centres or encouraging people to use their services. They may provide information about their activities and access to care. Their websites must also show the identity and roles of the doctors and dentists who practise there, including part-time and replacement practitioners.
That is why a French clinic should establish what kind of organisation its website represents before copying another provider’s wording or campaign.
Forms, live chat and WhatsApp
Someone may use a simple contact form to send a diagnosis, medication list or face photograph. Health information has special protection under Article 9 of the GDPR, alongside French provisions in Article 44 of the loi Informatique et Libertés. A clinic needs an appropriate basis and condition for processing the information it collects. That does not mean every patient-care form requires a consent checkbox; the correct basis depends on its purpose.
Keep the first enquiry focused. A callback request rarely needs medical history or photographs. Explain what the form is for, who will receive the message and where the visitor can read the privacy information. Check where submissions are stored and whether an outside supplier handles them.
Do the same for live chat and AI chat. Who can read the transcript? How long is it kept? What happens if someone asks for clinical advice or urgent help? The CNIL’s chatbot guidance also explains that a chat cookie placed before a visitor opens the tool may need prior consent. A cookie used only after the visitor activates the chat may be treated differently, provided it serves that function alone. Our article on GDPR and AI chatbots for aesthetic clinics covers the supplier questions in more detail.
A WhatsApp button can help with appointment questions. It should not quietly become the clinic’s route for detailed medical histories and clinical photographs. The CNIL warns that general-purpose messaging services rarely offer a sufficiently secure way to transmit personal information without additional measures. Tell visitors they are opening an external service, set expectations about what they should send and offer another contact route.
Where booking or messaging software stores patient health data for the clinic, check the supplier agreement and hosting arrangements too. French rules can require a certified HDS health-data host. A “GDPR compliant” label alone does not explain where the messages go.
Cookies, pixels and follow-up marketing
The statutory starting point for cookies and similar trackers in France is Article 82 of the loi Informatique et Libertés. Advertising pixels generally need consent before they run. Check what loads from booking software, chat widgets, embedded media and social platforms before a visitor makes a choice. Some audience-measurement tools can qualify for an exemption, but only under specific conditions. The CNIL’s website guidance explains the practical requirements.
An enquiry is not automatic permission to send promotions. An appointment confirmation and a marketing campaign have different purposes. Check the CNIL’s email and SMS marketing rules before adding enquirers to a mailing list or messaging campaign.
Make the website’s legal notices and privacy information easy to find. Patients should be able to identify who runs the site and understand what happens when they contact the clinic.
How iGlowly approaches a French clinic website
We organise the site around the clinic’s practitioners, services and the questions patients ask before contacting them. We may flag titles, results images, medicine or device claims, promotions, chat tools and trackers for review. We also check which type of practice or facility the site represents.
The clinic and its practitioners check their clinical information, qualifications and professional obligations. They decide what appears on the website and approve the final content. If we raise a concern, the clinic makes the final decision and we follow its instructions.
Read what an aesthetic clinic website should include, or explore iGlowly’s website design and management service.