Imagens Médicas Integradas SA – CJEU Judgment (European Union, 2025)
CJEU judgment — not a DPA enforcement action
This is a Court of Justice ruling, not an enforcement action by a data protection authority. It is not included in cookie statistics or the Risk Calculator.
The Court of Justice ruled on the legality of seizing employees' emails during a competition investigation. The court was asked to clarify if these emails are considered private correspondence and if they can be taken without violating privacy rights. This ruling will help define the balance between business investigations and employee privacy.
What happened
The Court of Justice examined whether emails from employees can be seized during competition authority investigations.
Who was affected
Employees of Imagens Médicas Integradas S.A. and related companies whose emails were seized by the competition authority.
What the authority found
The Court held that the seizure of emails must respect privacy rights and may require prior judicial authorization.
Why this matters
This ruling sets a precedent for how employee communications can be treated in legal investigations, emphasizing the need for careful consideration of privacy rights in business contexts.
GDPR Articles Cited
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National Law Articles
Imagens Médicas Integradas S.A., several companies in the SIBS group and Synlabhealth II S.A. (the controllers) are a number of companies in the medical field. Between 2021 and 2022, the national competition authority conducted several investigations under the authorisation of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The information seized included employees’ emails and internal documents. The controllers objected to the competition authority seizing employees’ emails, and filed an appeal with the Tribunal da Concorrência, Regulação e Supervisão (Competition, Regulation and Supervision Court, Portugal). According to the controllers, the seizures were illegal, as they infringed their right to secrecy of correspondence. The competition court decided to stay proceedings and refer questions to the CJEU concerning the lawfulness of the seizure of emails of employees during investigations carried out by the competition authority. The competition court referred the following questions: # Do the business records at issue in this case, which are transmitted by email, constitute “correspondence” for the purposes of Article 7 of the [Charter]? # Does Article 7 of the [Charter] preclude business records arising from email communications between managers and employees of undertakings from being seized in the course of an investigation into agreements and practices prohibited under Article 101 TFEU (ex Article 81 [EC]) [or, in Case C 260/23, Article 102 TFEU (ex article 82 [EC])]? # Does Article 7 of the [Charter] preclude such business records from being seized on the prior authorisation of a judicial authority, in this case the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is responsible for representing the State, defending the interests determined by law, bringing criminal prosecutions on the basis of the principle of legality and defending democratic legality in accordance with the Constitution, and which operates independently of the other central, regional and local authorities?’ In his ini
Outcome
CJEU Judgment
A judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union, typically on a preliminary reference from a national court.
Related Cases (0)
No other cases found for Imagens Médicas Integradas SA in EU
This is the only recorded case for this entity in this jurisdiction.
Details
Judgment Date
23 October 2025
Authority
Court of Justice of the European Union
About this data
Cite as: Cookie Fines. Imagens Médicas Integradas SA - European Union (2025). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu
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