The Fake EHIC Card Scam

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been forced into taking action against websites who are charging consumers for a service that they can actually obtain free of charge through the NHS website.

If you've been misled by a fake EHIC website and want to recover your money, you can create a formal demand for a refund using our free Consumer Complaint Letter Builder.

What is the European health Insurance Card?

The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) scheme is a scheme that allows EU citizens to obtain medical care free of charge or in some cases at a local rate if they are visiting other countries that take part in the scheme.

UK residents are entitled to medical treatment when on holiday or visiting another EU country, as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Only treatment that you would be able to get under the state scheme for that country is covered, and you need to be able to show your EHIC to be able to get the treatment. It’s not the same as travel insurance though, so the general advice is that even if you have an EHIC, you still need to take out a good travel insurance policy to cover you for all medical eventualities.

What Did the Misleading EHIC Websites Do?

Although it’s free to apply for an EHIC if you use the NHS website, the websites in question decided to set themselves up as official handlers of applications, so that they could charge consumers for simply forwarding the applications through to the NHS. They didn’t make it obvious that the service was usually free of charge, and although they didn’t directly break any laws, the OFT still decided that the way they were going about their business had been calculated into misleading people into making applications through them when they could have used the NHS site for nothing.

There were four websites involved in the OFT clampdown, typically these companies were charging around £10 to process an EHIC application, without making it clear that they were not official EHIC sites. The four sites that the OFT took action against were mainly found to be misleading because they copied the EHIC brand, making it look as though they were actually an official site; used an official sounding URL that people could easily have mistaken for the real thing; didn’t make it clear anywhere on their site that the services they were providing were unofficial.

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What Action Did the OFT Take?

Three of the websites under the OFT spotlight have agreed that they will not use misleading selling practices in the future. These websites are

• ehic.org
• thejwsgroup.com/ehicservice and
• ehic.uk.com.

Heather Clayton, then Senior Director of the OFT's Consumer Group, said that while it wasn’t actually unlawful to charge consumers for a reviewing and forwarding service, anyone who offers such a service has to be very clear about the product or service they are offering, and not attempt to trick consumers into spending money to get services they don’t need or want.

She added that anyone who wanted to apply for an EHIC or for other government-funded services should check carefully to make sure that they are using an official government website.

Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.

How to Apply for an EHIC

If you want to apply for an EHIC free of charge, go to the official NHS EHIC page, where you will be able to download the forms and/or apply online. You will need to have the NHS or National Insurance Number, Surname/Family Name, Forenames and Date of Birth of each person you are applying for a card for.

Alternatively, you can apply for your EHIC by calling 0845 606 2030.

If you are a non-EEA national you will need to apply by post as you’ll need to provide documentation to support your application. You can pick up an application form from the Post Office.

Advertising Standards Authority Ruling on EHIC Direct

On your behalf we complained to the ASA about the EHIC Direct website, which while not acting fraudulenty, did seem to mislead customers into using (and being charged for) their service when the EHIC card could actually be obtained directly at no charge. Other consumers and the NHS Business Services Authority had also complained. The ASA upheld this aspect of the complaint and recommended that EHIC Direct take the following action:

"The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told EHIC Direct to ensure that their website did not create a misleading impression that it was the official NHS website for EHIC applications or that they were affiliated with the official NHS website. The website should make immediately clear the non-official nature of the service on offer and the additional cost of using that service compared to using the official service directly. We also told them to ensure that any qualifications were sufficiently prominent (for example, in conjunction with initial claims or calls to action, such as an application form or ‘Apply Now’ button), so as not to mislead consumers about the nature of their service. Any qualification should be of a clearly visible colour and sufficient size, and presented separately from other information, to ensure it was prominent and would be read by consumers. We also told them to ensure that any claims comparing their services to those of the NHS accurately represented the NHS’ services."

The Next Step

Now that you have read through the advice above, you might want to put it into practice. Our Car Purchase Rights Checker lets you bought a faulty car? Find out exactly where you stand legally. Takes 1 minute. Try it now →