Court case 6Ob138/20t – Court Ruling (Austria, 2020)

The claimant was hospitalised in a hospital for which the defendant was responsible. After being discharged from hospital, the claimant asked the hospital to send his entire medical history to his email address free of charge, citing the GDPR. The hospital responded that the transfer of the medical history was subject to the payment of a fee. The claimant did not pay the fee and the defendant did not provide the claimant with the medical history until the conclusion of the oral proceedings at first instance. The complainant sued the hospital operator for €7,000. The court of first instance upheld the claim, holding that the GDPR regulations overrode national law on the provision of medical records. The claimant was entitled to a free initial copy of the medical history under Article 15(3) GDPR in conjunction with Article 12(3) GDPR. The Court of Appeal amended the judgment to dismiss the claim. It valued the subject matter of the decision at €5,000, but no more than €30,000, and allowed the ordinary appeal because there was no supreme court case law on a patient's right to receive a free initial copy of his medical history under the Data Protection Act. The plaintiff has appealed. Is the right to receive a first copy of medical history free of charge limited by national legislation in a way that is permissible under Article 23 GDPR, or must the principle of chargeability remain inapplicable as a national law contrary to Article 23 GDPR? The Supreme Court repealed the judgments of the lower courts and referred the case back to the court of first instance for re-examination and determination.