Judgment_paragraph 60 · CopyGene A/S v Skatteministeriet (C-262/08)

60Where necessary, it is for the referring court to determine whether an operator such as CopyGene is ‘of a similar nature’ to hospitals and centres for medical treatment or diagnosis. It should be noted, as the Court has already ruled, that since diagnostic medical tests, in the light of their therapeutic purpose, come within the concept of ‘medical care’ as referred to in Article 13A(1)(b) of the Sixth Directive, a laboratory governed by private law and undertaking analyses must be regarded as being an establishment ‘of a similar nature’ to ‘hospitals’ and ‘centres for medical treatment or diagnosis’ within the meaning of that provision (see L.u.P., paragraphs 18 and 35). That being so, in the present case, CopyGene, in answer to a question at the hearing before the Court, stated in essence that, usually, it analyses cord stem cells solely in order to ascertain whether there are sufficient ‘viable’ cells to justify the preservation of the sample in question.