VGZ – Court Ruling (Netherlands, 2021)

De 'Regenboog Apotheek' (Rainbow pharmacy) is a pharmacy which provides its patients with so-called 'tapering strips'. These strips are used when patients stop taking certain kinds of antidepressants and ADHD-medication, as suddenly stopping can cause severe withdrawal symptoms. Tapering strips need to be made by hand for individual patients, and are therefore expensive. Health insurance company VGZ refuses to pay for these strips despite insistence of the pharmacy that they are legally obliged to do so. This dispute has led to the termination of the contract between the Regenboog pharmacy and VGZ. The pharmacy then placed an ad in a local newspaper, informing their patients that they might need to switch to a different health insurance company. In this ad, the names and work telephone numbers of two employees (who work at the purchasing department of VGZ) were included. In a separate letter to all patients using ADHD-medication, this information was repeated. Was the pharmacy allowed to publish the names of employees of the purchasing department of the health insurance company? The Court ordered the publication of the personal details of the employees unlawful, as a legal basis was missing. The Regenboog pharmacy was ordered to send a follow-up letter to all patients who had illegally received personal details, pointing them to the general customer service number of VGZ.