Not driven by the crisis, but nevertheless extremely timely, is a European Court of Justice case concerning remote consultations with Doctors (which may become much more popular in the coming months).
The case related to a German company X-GmbH providing medical advice to insured persons and running patient support programmes for those suffering from chronic or long-term diseases. The medical consultations were provided over a healthcare telephone line, supported by an on-line assessment which allowed the consultant to put the patients’ situation into a medical context before providing the advice. The German authorities felt that this remoteness brought the service out of the VAT exemption for medical care. However, the CJEU held that the main criterion for determining whether or not the medical services could be exempt from VAT is whether those services pursue a ‘therapeutic aim’ regardless of the place or means of providing of such services. More details of the case can be found here .