This article focuses on the issue of marketing activities conducted by public pharmacies, which are the last intermediate link on the way of a pharmaceutical product to the customer (patient). The aim of the article is to present the scope of marketing activity of public pharmacies in Poland, which is the result of the introduced legal restrictions in the field of advertising and the extended interpretation of the ban in question in the process of applying the law to other instruments of marketing communication. Various research methods were used to achieve the goal: the method of analysis and criticism of literature, the method of analysing legal acts, the method of examining documents and the method of diagnostic survey based on the use of a questionnaire and a modified comprehension and marketing application index. The results of the research were subjected to statistical analysis. The article attempts to answer the following questions: What is the scope of marketing activity of public pharmacies in Poland? How does the overinterpretation of the ban on pharmacy advertising and its activities by pharmaceutical supervision authorities affect the pharmacy's marketing communication? Is it possible to implement marketing orientation in the operational activity of public pharmacies? Are there differences in the "chain" pharmacies and "independent" ("non-chain") pharmacies? Prohibited and permitted forms of operating activity in the area of marketing were identified in detail, indicating the directions of changes in the marketing communication process.