Lithuanian court seeks EU Court of Justice ruling in Foxpay owner’s fine dispute

A Lithuanian court has suspended proceedings in a case involving a €16,500 fine imposed on Ieva Trinkūnaitė, owner of the payment service provider Foxpay, and requested a preliminary ruling from the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the Regional Administrative Court announced on Monday.

The court is seeking clarification on EU legal standards governing the scope of data collection during financial supervision inspections and the protection of personal data. The request follows concerns over whether Lithuania’s regulatory framework aligns with EU fundamental rights, including privacy, professional confidentiality, and the right to an effective defence.

In December 2024, the Bank of Lithuania fined Trinkūnaitė for allegedly refusing to allow inspectors to copy data from her work computer and phone during a Foxpay audit. Trinkūnaitė argues that the central bank sought to extract all data from her personal devices—including unrelated personal information, confidential business records, and bank-secrecy-protected details—without clear limits on what could be collected.

The court’s referral to the ECJ questions whether supervisory authorities, such as the Bank of Lithuania, have sole discretion to determine the scope of data collection during inspections or if pre-defined limits must be established. It also asks whether current national practices sufficiently safeguard fundamental rights under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II), and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

“There is a risk that, without clear criteria for data selection and legally defined boundaries for collected information, the rights to privacy, professional secrecy, attorney-client privilege, and effective defence may be inadequately protected,” the court stated in its May 28 decision.

The Regional Administrative Court has paused the case until the ECJ issues its preliminary ruling.