The proposal to extend the Audiovisiual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) continues along its legislative path. We are now entering the trilogue negotiations phase, and, after having read the unrelated [at least at first glance] G7 Taormina Statement on the fight against terrorism and violent extremism, I am re-reading the text of the Proposal for a … Continue reading
Tag Archives: e-commerce Directive
The politics of online platforms: when AG Szpunar converses with the EC in Elite Taxi v Uber.
Advocate General Szpunar (AG) delivered yesterday his opinion in the highly political and much awaited case C‑434/15 Asociación Profesional Elite Taxi v Uber Systems Spain SL. In a nutshell, the AG was asked to answer four questions concerning two important milestones of the European Union (EU) acquis: the E-commerce Directive of 2000 and the services … Continue reading
Video-sharing platform services and media services : what is the link between the new AVMSD and the old ECD?
The regulation of digital content seems to be at a turning point. Based on the premise that the Internet of 2016, or should I say 2017, has nothing to do with the Internet of the 2000s, the European Commission (EC) has decided to act and released in May and in September this year two key … Continue reading
AG CAMPOS SÁNCHEZ-BORDONA in Stichting Brein: what is the link between GS Media and Article 15 ECD?
The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU)’s Advocate General (AG) Campos Sanchez-Bordona issued his opinion yesterday in the case C‑527/15 Stichting Brein v Jack Frederik Wullems, acting under the name of Filmspeler, which is again a case involving the infamous right to communicate copyright works to the public. Very briefly, the … Continue reading
Open Letter to the European Commission – On the Importance of Preserving the Consistency and Integrity of the EU Acquis Relating to Content Monitoring within the Information Society
This is not just another post on the proposed Copyright Directive released on 14 September 2016 (Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on copyright in the Digital Single Market discussed in my previous post here) and others hard and/or soft law initiatives coming from the European Commission (see for … Continue reading
content regulation / Copyright / illegal content / immunities / Internet intermediaries / ISPs / notice-and-take down / safe harbour
The CJEU rules on free access to wireless local area networks in McFadden: The last(?) shudder of Article 15 ECD, the vanishing of effective remedies, and a big farewell to free Wi-Fi!
Let us now turn to the last intellectual work of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the field of copyright and intermediary liability [it is indeed really difficult to get rid of them!] which was released today: Case C‑484/14 Tobias Mc Fadden v Sony Music Entertainment Germany GmbH. Once again, the … Continue reading
blocking injunction / deep packet inspection / filtering / Intellectual Property / Internet intermediaries / Trade Marks
Blocking injunction confirmed in trade mark case: could Cartier ever nourish euro-scepticism even after Brexit?
The Court of Appeal of England and Wales (CA) confirmed yesterday the availability of injunctions against Internet access providers to the benefits of trade mark owners. In short, the CA had to hear appeals by five English Internet service providers (Sky, BT, EE, TalkTalk and Virgin, known as ‘the ISPs‘) against first instance orders made … Continue reading
content regulation / hate speech / illegal content / immunities / Intellectual Property / Internet intermediaries / notice-and-take down / terrorism
The EU Commission and its official Communication on Online Platforms: is the e-commerce Directive being attacked by the back door?
As you might remember, a draft version of the European Commission’s Communication on Online Platforms and the Digital Single Market was leaked at the end of April. From digesting it at that time, it seemed to be clear that the Commission had taken the view that content regulation should be sectorial and the liability exemptions … Continue reading
content regulation / Copyright / Data protection / immunities / Internet intermediaries / ISPs / notice-and-take down
The EU Commission and its draft Communication on online platforms: sectorial voluntary action and soft law are the winners of the regulatory challenge!
The topic of intermediary liability is a hot topic these days, with different types of institutions already having had looked, or still looking, at how to interpret/amend/improve the EU intermediary liability legal and regulatory regime. The European Commission [EC] fuelled this debate with its Communication of 6 May 2015 on ‘A Digital Single Market Strategy … Continue reading
MTE v Hungary: is the ECtHR rewriting Delfi v Estonia?
A few months after the now infamous decision Delfi v Estonia of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) [for background, see my earlier post here], the Fourth Section of the Court issued on 2 February 2016 a judgement (MTE v Hungary) dealing with similar issues. Starting with the end of … Continue reading
Peep Beep! 