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“Saucy controller of our private steps!”*) - request for preliminary ruling on data retention and data protection directive
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Is the provider of an electronic communications service, having to retain data according to the data retention directive 2006/24/EC, also obliged to provide - as data controller under the data protection directive 95/46/EC - to give the data subject...
“Of violent birth, but poor validity”*: Austrian Constitutional Court questions validity of data retention directive - reference to ECJ
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The Austrian Constitutional Court today announced its decision to refer questions concerning the validity of the data retention directive to the Court of Justice of the European Union. In the request for a preliminary ruling (here in German, an Engli...
“the top of judgment”* 2012: This year’s top telecoms and broadcasting cases at the ECJ
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Carrying on what has become some sort of a tradition (2009, 2010, 2011), I shall again take a look at pending cases in the field of telecommunications and broadcasting at the Court of Justice of the European Union (and the General Court) which we can...
Commissioner Kroes calling the talented Dr. Googleberg to the “crime scene internet”
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It could have been the ultimate practical joke of this year. Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission, appointed Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg “to promote internet freedom globally”. According to her press release, this “...
“to tax him with injustice”*: ECJ confirms that special (lower) tax on France Télécom was state aid
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Today, the European Court of Justice in its judgment C-81/10 France Télécom dismissed the appeal of France Télécom against the judgment of the Court of First Instance of 30 November 2009 (the last day when the “General Court” was stil...
“who, like a block, hath denied my access”*: ECJ on internet filtering and blocking
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Today, the European Court of Justice gave judgment in the case C-70/10 Scarlet Extended, dealing with an injunction imposed on an ISP to introduce a comprehensive system for filtering and ultimately blocking communications to protect intellectual pro...
“And thrown into neglect the pompous court?”* (just a list of judgments not covered on this blog)
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Yes, I have neglected this blog for some time now, but I have not neglected the Court (meaning the Court of Justice of the European Union, which is, of course, important, but not just self-important, as Merriam-Webster defines “pompous”).
Football Association and Murphy: judgment on 4 October 2011
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The silly season - when Parliament and the Law Courts are not sitting - is over, at least for the EU Courts: the Court of Justice of the European Union (which I still abbreviate as ECJ) will start its sessions again on Monday. From my personal “...
“Procure me some access”*: ECJ on access to environmental information - location of base-stations
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Do you have a right to know the exact location of all mobile phone base-stations (not just an approximate location as you can find in Ofcom’s “sitefinder” database)? This question is at the heart of a conflict between a UK health...
ECJ: Mediaset to repay state aid for DVB-T decoders (or: a small victory for Murdoch against Berlsuconi)
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Some cases need personalisation in order to be mildly interesting: so let’s say that Murdoch today scored a victory over rival media tycoon Berlusconi, when the European Court of Justice, in its judgment in the case C-403/10 P Mediaset, dismiss...
“Journalists are no angels” - a timely reminder from the ECtHR
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“Finally, we should not ignore the dangers of journalistic abuse. In Poland, as in many other countries, journalists are not always angels.” These are the words of Judges Garlicki (Poland) and Vučinić (Montenegro) of the European Cou...
The crackdown on kino.to in Germany
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A few weeks ago, the Website kino.to was shut down by German authorities. Why did this happen? What will be the consequences, and for whom? What is the legal background? Some answers.
Football and TV again: ECJ to decide on AVMS-”short extracts” as a violation of the right to property
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Football and TV, it seems, make for interesting lawsuits - like the whitelist-cases (more here) or the FAPL’s handling of exclusive broadcasting rights (see here). Now another “football and TV”-case goes to the European Court of Jus...
“Proud of their numbers”*: universal service operator not a one-stop-shop for information on subscribers from all networks
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In a competitive telecommunications environment telephone directories and directory enquiry services need to rely on subscriber information from a range of different wireline and wireless networks. However, former monopoly operators or present univer...
“And learn me how to lose a winning match”*: FIFA and UEFA lose “white list”-case
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Are all matches of the FIFA Football World Cup and the UEFA Football European Championships “events of major importance to society”? Strangely enough, FIFA and UEFA themselves, though not usually prone to underestimate their own importanc...
“which is the top of judgment”*: This year’s top cases at the ECJ
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In the list of pending cases I currently keep track of some 50 cases pending at the Court of Justice of the European Union (more specifically: 30 at the Court of Justice and 20 at the General Court), that in one way or the other seem relevant to the...
“That sets us all at odds”*: exclusive broadcasting rights and the internal market
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The joined cases C-403/08 Football Association Premier League and Others and C-429/08 Murphy provide for an interesting match in Europe’s Premier League of Law, at the Court of Justice of the European Union - and yesterday’s opinion of...
“break no privilege nor charter”*: ECJ invalidates regulations for breaching Charter of Fundamental Rights
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The European Court of Justice in its judgment of 9 November 2010, C-92/09 Volker und Markus Schecke GbR v. Land Hessen (joined with C-93/09 Hartmut Eifert v. Land Hessen) declared two provisions of a council regulation obliging member states to publi...
ECJ: maintaining media diversity not reason enough to depart from unfair commercial practices directive
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Yesterday, the European Court of Justice gave judgment in the case C-540/08 Mediaprint v. “Österreich”-Zeitungsverlag. The Austrian Supreme Court had requested a preliminary ruling in a continuing legal battle between two major newspaper publish...
“Warr’st thou ‘gainst Athens?”*: ECJ against Greek “poisoned shares” in broadcasters
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The age of “golden shares” is coming to a close, thanks to the European Court of Justice (as evidenced again, for a telecoms operator, in the Court’s judgment of 7 October 2010, C-171/08 Commission v. Portugal). In a recent decisi...
