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On 17 September 2024, the notification of the planned merger between children’s TV channels Super RTL and Nickelodeon was withdrawn. The Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartels Office – BKartA), the competition authority responsible for mergers, had expressed concerns over negative effects on the children’s advertising market and was planning to block the merger. The German state media authorities, represented by the Kommission zur Ermittlung der Konzentration im Medienbereich (Commission on Concentration in the Media – KEK), were consulted by the Federal Cartels Office for the...

In a summary judgment of 13 September 2024 (case No. 3 S 103/24), the Oberverwaltungsgericht Berlin-Brandenburg (Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court – OVG) upheld the lower-instance court’s decision that the Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party – FDP) was not entitled to take part in an election programme to be broadcast by Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb) in the run-up to the Brandenburg state parliament election under the principle of equal opportunities for political parties. It ruled that, in accordance with its editorial freedom, rbb could exclude...

In April 2024, on the basis of the notification obligations provided for in Directive (EU) 2015/1535, the German Länder, as the competent legislative body, notified the European Commission of a draft amendment to the Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag (State Treaty on the Protection of Minors in the Media – JMStV). However, in its opinion of 1 July 2024, the European Commission was critical of the draft. Although it shared the objective of providing children and young people with safe access to online content and protecting them from harmful content, the Commission considered that, as...

The Digitale-Dienste-Gesetz (Digital Services Law – DDG), which entered into force in May 2024, transposed certain provisions of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act – DSA) into German law. On 12 August 2024, the Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency – BNetzA), appointed as Germany’s Digital Services Coordinator under the DDG, certified the first national dispute settlement body for online platforms. The Berlin-based User Rights GmbH was the first organisation to submit an application to the BNetzA and will now assume its responsibilities in accordance with...

In a recently published decision of 22 April 2024 (Case No. 32 K 1/23), the Verwaltungsgericht Berlin (Berlin Administrative Court – VG Berlin) upheld a complaint concerning a breach of the ban on regional advertising lodged by a Landesmedienanstalt (state media authority) against a national television broadcaster. It held that the advertising ban, enshrined in the German Medienstaatsvertrag (state media treaty – MStV), was not unconstitutional. However, a different court had previously found that the ban, which was also the subject of a 2021 European Court of Justice ruling in the...