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Alongside their traditional offer of radio and television channels, German public service broadcasters are increasingly providing telemedia offers in accordance with Article 27 of the Medienstaatsvertrag (state media treaty – MStV). According to Article 30(2) MStV, such offers particularly include “broadcasting of their programmes on demand before and after their scheduled broadcasting”, sometimes with time limitations, e.g. for sports events, “as well as independent audiovisual content”, and “historical/cultural archives with informative, formative and cultural...

On 1 September 2021, the 14 German Landesmedienanstalten (state media authorities) published calls for tender pursuant to Article 84 of the Medienstaatsvertrag (state media treaty – MStV) in order to determine offers that must be easy to find in user interfaces. Separate calls for tender for video and audio services must be organised in accordance with Article 3(1)(2) of the state media authorities’ Public-Value-Satzung (public value rules). They mark the start of the process described in Article 84(5) MStV for determining so-called public value offers of private media (i.e. those that...

In three rulings published on 9 September 2021, in relation to the well-known German social media influencers Leonie Hanne, Cathy Hummels and Luisa-Maxime Huss (case nos. I ZR 90/20, I ZR 125/20 and I ZR 126/20), the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court – BGH) decided whether influencer posts should be labelled as advertising. The proceedings were instigated by an association in competition, which had accused the influencers of engaging in surreptitious advertising pursuant to Articles 8(1)(1), 8(3)(2), 3(1) and 5a(6) of the Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb (Unfair Competition...

According to a press release published on 29 July 2021 by the Medienanstalt Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein (Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein media authority – MA HSH), one of Germany’s 14 media regulators, the TikTok social media platform recently deleted 91 profiles and 169 videos containing either Nazi references or scenes of violence that could be harmful to minors after receiving a notification from the MA HSH. The TikTok platform is a video portal that enables users to upload music videos or short video clips. It also includes social networking features and is operated by the Chinese...

In a decision published on 20 July 2021, the First Senate of the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court – BVerfG) decided that, by failing to approve the Erster Medienänderungsstaatsvertrag (first amended state media treaty), the Land of Saxony-Anhalt had violated the freedom of broadcasting enjoyed by public broadcasters under Article 5(1)(2) of the Grundgesetz (Basic Law – GG). The provisions of Article 1 of the first amended state treaty – including the plan to increase the public broadcasting fee by EUR 0.86 from EUR 17.50 to EUR 18.36 proposed by the...