Germany

[DE] Information and Communications Services Act and Agreement between the Federal States on Media Services Come into Force

IRIS 1997-8:1/16

Wolfgang Closs

Institute of European Media Law (EMR), Saarbrücken/Brussels

In IRIS 1997-2: 10 we reported on the legislative procedure of the Information and Communications Services Act (Informations- und Kommunikationsdienstegesetz - IuKDG) and on the Agreement between the Federal States on Media Services (Medienstaatsvertrag).

Both became effective on 1 August 1997.

This gives Germany uniform framework conditions for the use of various electronic information and communications services.

While the Agreement between the Federal States on Media Services, which is the legislative responsibility of the Länder, settles matters concerning media services with broadcasting characteristics (distribution services, ondemand services, etc), the Information and Communications Services Act, which is the responsibility of the national legislative authority, settles matters concerning individual communication services, inter alia the legal questions of "tele-services" in the Tele-Services Act.

The Information and Communications Services Act and the Agreement between the Federal States are understood as complementary to the regulations contained in the Agreement between the Federal States on Broadcasting and in the Telecommunications Act thus leaving the latter two unchanged.