EU Court Nixes Austria’s Health Clinic Restrictions

(CN) - Austria's legislation on setting up private health institutions is incompatible with European Community law, the Court of Justice ruled Tuesday. A German company called Hartlauer brought the case to court after the governments of Vienna and Upper Austria denied it permission to open an outpatient dental clinic.

Austrian law only allows new clinics when there is a need for them.

This violates freedom of establishment, the court ruled, "since it applies to independent outpatient dental clinics, but not to group practices, and it is not based on a condition capable of adequately circumscribing the exercise by the national authorities of their discretion."

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