Judgment in favour of Vet-Alert Foundation
16.01.2026
The Province Administrative Court in Warsaw held in December 2023 that under current law, a non-commercial entity cannot operate a veterinary clinic for non-profit purposes. After three years of litigation, the Supreme Administrative Court has now upheld the cassation appeal by the Vet-Alert Foundation for Protection of Animals and the Ombudsman and overturned the challenged judgment, remanding the case for reconsideration.
The dispute has been ongoing since January 2023, when the West Pomeranian Veterinary Medicine Chamber in Szczecin adopted a resolution striking from the register of veterinary treatment facilities a clinic operated by the Vet-Alert Foundation for Protection of Animals.
Vet-Alert ran the veterinary clinic for non-profit purposes, and provided services there free of charge. Consequently, the foundation was not a business entity, and was not entered in the Central Registration and Information on Business or the commercial register of the National Court Register.
In the view of the council of the regional veterinary chamber, such an entity was not eligible for entry in the register of veterinary treatment facilities.
The foundation appealed against the resolution, but the executive committee of the National Veterinary Council upheld it. Consequently, the foundation filed a complaint with the Province Administrative Court in Warsaw, where the case was joined by the Ombudsman.
In its judgment of 12 December 2023 (case no. IV SA/Wa 1744/23), the court denied the foundation’s complaint, finding that to be entered in the register of veterinary treatment facilities, the applicant must conduct commercial activity.
Both Vet-Alert and the Ombudsman filed a cassation appeal against the judgment. They alleged that the judgment was issued in violation of procedural regulations, because the court did not explain the legal basis for its ruling. Moreover, the challengers alleged that the judgment was issued in violation of Art. 16(1) and Art. 17(1), (4) of the Veterinary Treatment Facilities Act of 18 December 2003.
The foundation and the Ombudsman argued that veterinary facilities may be operated for profit or not for profit, and the current regulations cannot be interpreted as not allowing a clinic to be operated by an entity that does not provide veterinary services on a commercial basis.
In its judgment of 16 January 2026 (case no. I OSK 459/24), the Supreme Administrative Court upheld the cassation appeals by Vet-Alert and the Ombudsman, setting aside the judgment below and remanding the case to the Province Administrative Court in Warsaw for reconsideration. The Supreme Administrative Court found that the judgment below violated Art. 141 §4 of the Administrative Court Procedure Law of 30 August 2022. As the high court stated in the oral grounds for the ruling, the justification for the ruling issued by the province court was too narrow and did not address the essence of the dispute, while erroneously ignoring a number of arguments raised by the parties, including constitutional claims.
Because the judgment was vacated on procedural grounds, the Supreme Administrative Court did not analyse the appellants’ further allegations of violation of substantive law. Consequently, the case is not over yet, and will be taken up again by the lower court, which will decide once again whether a non-commercial entity can be entered in the register of veterinary treatment facilities.
The Vet-Alert Foundation for Protection of Animals is represented pro bono by Dr Maciej Kiełbowski, with support from Joanna Duda.