Since 2007, the legal framework in force in Portugal has allowed community pharmacies to offer discounts to the public on the price of prescription medicines and even reimbursed medicines. The direct discount that can be applied by pharmacies to the price of reimbursed medicines is a practice that fosters a competitive price climate that can encourage excessive or inappropriate use of medicines by the population, in contrast to what is advocated by the WHO on user care and the safety of medicines. At European level, several countries do not allow pharmacies to offer discounts to the community on medicines with regulated and reimbursed prices. Allowing discounts to the public has even more negative consequences for the sustainability of smaller pharmacies, or those that are more distant from urban centres, and therefore for their maintenance and contribution to territorial cohesion and the health of these communities.