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In judgments issued on 21 January 2021, the first civil chamber of the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court – BGH) ruled on two cases (nos. I ZR 120/19 and I ZR 207/19) concerning the use of images of celebrities for commercial purposes and the related intrusion on image rights. In the first case (no. I ZR 120/19), the image of a celebrity had been used in an editorial article that had no connection with the person depicted. The dispute had arisen after a press company published a Facebook post containing a link to an article about cancer and four images of famous television presenters,...

On 3 February 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled, in Case C-555/19 (Fussl Modestraße Mayr), that the provisions of the German Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (State Broadcasting Treaty – RStV), which was recently replaced by the Medienstaatsvertrag (State Media Treaty – MStV), prohibiting television broadcasters from showing advertising at regional level in programmes broadcast throughout the country could be contrary to EU law, in particular the freedom to provide services. The court cast particular doubt on the proportionality of Article 7(11) RStV (now Article...

In a press release issued on 21 January 2021, the Direktorenkonferenz der Medienanstalten (Conference of Regional Media Authority Directors – DLM) announced that, in 2020, the Kommission für Zulassung und Aufsicht (Commission on Licensing and Supervision – ZAK) had investigated a total of 22 infringements of the programming rules contained in the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (State Broadcasting Treaty – RStV), which has now been replaced by the Medienstaatsvertrag (State Media Treaty – MStV), by various national television channels. The ZAK is responsible for supervising...

On 7 January 2021, the federal government announced the launch of its new "Kino I" project as part of the "Neustart Kultur" financial aid programme for 2021, which is designed to further stabilise the economic situation of cinemas during the pandemic. The "Kino I" campaign forms part of the federal government’s "Neustart Kultur" programme that was launched in 2020. "Neustart Kultur" is a government-led financial aid programme designed to safeguard the film industry as a cultural asset, which is in particular need of support following the...

In a judgment (Case nos. C-422/19 and C-423/19) of 26 January 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that payment in cash for the German radio and television licence fee could be refused on the grounds that the administrative cost of accepting cash payments was disproportionate. The case concerned two German citizens from Hessen who had offered to pay Hessischer Rundfunk (HR) for their radio and television licences in cash. HR had refused their offer with reference to a rule that it had adopted preventing cash payments for the licence. The two German citizens had then...