TGS Baltic has represented the interests of Jonaiciai Ir Ko, a private gynecology clinic, in litigation against Lithuania's State Tax Inspectorate after the clinic was ordered to prepare patients’ health files for a period of three years for tax inspection purposes.
The clinic filed a complaint requesting that the STI order be canceled.
Citing data protection and privacy law concerns, Jonaiciai Ir Ko refused to present patient health files to the STI, claiming it was only allowed to do so without patient consent in exceptional cases. In addition, the clinic claimed, the requested data relates only to medical information, irrelevant to taxation issues, and thus is unnecessary for tax inspection purposes.
The Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania sustained the complaint of Jonaiciai Ir Ko and cancelled the STI order.
TGS Baltic Senior Associate Erika Jurgutyte and Partner Daiva Usinskaite-Filonoviene represented Jonaiciai Ir Ko's interests in all stages of the dispute. “We hope that this judicial process created a new precedent that such instructions of the tax administrator to present particularly sensitive personal health data of patients are disproportionate and unnecessary for implementation of tax inspection purposes,” the TGS Baltic team commented in a firm press release.
