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In a decision (I ZR 153/17) of 10 December 2020, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court – BGH), Germany’s highest ordinary court, ruled that the information that must be disclosed concerning a user who has illegally uploaded copyright-protected content to a video-sharing platform does not include their e-mail address, telephone number or IP address. The court therefore followed the preliminary ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) of 9 July 2020 (C-264/19). The dispute concerned an action brought by a film distributor against the YouTube Internet platform....

At the end of 2020, the Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media – KJM) approved the auXenticate age verification system in accordance with the provisions of the Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag (State Treaty on the Protection of Minors in the Media - JMStV) of the German Länder. The KJM, as an organ of Germany’s Landesmedienanstalten (state media authorities), is responsible for monitoring compliance with the provisions of the JMStV applicable to broadcasters and telemedia providers. This is necessary to ensure a common...

At its meeting on 27 November 2020, the Bundesrat (Federal Council), through which the German Länder participate in federal legislation and matters relating to the European Union, criticised the federal government’s bill amending the Jugendschutzgesetz (Youth Protection Act) on the grounds that it had failed to achieve its purpose of creating a convergent and coherent system for protecting young people in the media. In its statement concerning the bill, it mainly addressed questions relating to legal competence and substantive issues, and called for a fundamental revision of the document. The...

After the end of the Brexit transition period, Amazon’s Prime Video on-demand service within the European Union will fall under the jurisdiction of German regulators, and more specifically the Munich-based Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien (Bavarian new media authority – BLM). The BLM and Amazon recently announced that, following joint discussions, Amazon had met the necessary conditions for its service to come under German jurisdiction, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). Under Article 2 of the AVMSD, which...

In a decision issued on 22 December 2020 in the dispute over a proposed increase in the broadcasting licence fee used to fund public service broadcasting in Germany, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court – BVerfG) rejected urgent applications submitted by the broadcasters forming the ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio contesting the block that one of the German Bundesländer had placed on the proposed increase. The broadcasters therefore failed in their attempt to ensure that the increase took effect on 1 January 2021 despite opposition to it, which was partly political...