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The dispute over the distribution of the RT DE television channel in Germany is threatening to become another area of conflict in what has, for many years, been an increasingly tense relationship between the Russian Federation and Germany. On 16 December 2021, RT (previously known as Russia Today) launched RT DE, a new live German-language channel. However, it did not have a German broadcasting licence for the channel, but instead used a licence issued in Serbia. A previous attempt by the broadcaster to obtain a licence from Luxembourg had failed. However, since the broadcaster does not hold...

On 9 December 2021 (case no. 16 O 297/21), the Landgericht Berlin (Berlin regional court – LG Berlin) granted an interim injunction in proceedings brought by the nine public broadcasting corporations that comprise the ARD, declaring the broadcast of certain clips from ARD programmes by a private broadcaster as illegal on account of copyright infringements. The dispute began when private broadcaster BILD TV, recently launched by the Axel Springer media company in August 2021, showed excerpts from the public broadcasters’ election programming in its own BILD LIVE programme. On the...

In November 2021, the Rundfunkkommission (Broadcasting Commission) of the German Bundesländer, which acts as a joint discussion forum and decision-making body on media policy and related legal questions for the Heads of the State and Senate Chancelleries, published a draft proposal on the remit and structural reform of public service broadcasting. If the proposal is adopted, it will be the third time that the Medienstaatsvertrag (state media treaty – MStV) has been reformed, the current version of which came into force in November 2020. Its main purpose is to future-proof public service...

In a decision of 28 October 2021, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court – BVerwG), Germany’s highest administrative court, ruled that the Informationsfreiheitsgesetz (Freedom of Information Act – IFG) does not entitle citizens and journalists, who enjoy the same rights under the IFG, to access direct messages sent and received by federal government ministries on Twitter. The case concerned an information request submitted by FragDenStaat, a non-profit Internet platform, through which requests can be submitted on the basis of Germany’s federal and...

In a judgment of 18 November 2021, the 1st civil chamber of the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court – BGH), whose field of jurisdiction includes competition law, decided that residential tenancy agreements can bind a tenant to a paid broadband cable connection, provided by a landlord, for the entire duration of the agreement. The proceedings had been instigated by the Zentrale zur Bekämpfung unlauteren Wettbewerbs (Office Against Unfair Competition) against a landlord with more than 120 000 rental properties, around 108 000 of which are connected to a cable television network...