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On 18 August 2021, the Amsterdam District Court (Rechtbank Amsterdam) delivered a notable judgment on YouTube’s removal of a Member of Parliament’s video in the run-up to the recent Dutch parliamentary elections. Crucially, the Court held that YouTube had not violated the politician’s freedom of expression, and although YouTube has a “vast reach”, it does not have an obligation to allow content that violates its COVID-19 misinformation policy. The case involved Mr. Wybren van Haga, a Dutch politician and member of the House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer), who...

On 25 June 2021, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands (Hoge Raad) delivered an important decision on when an Internet service provider (ISP) is required to disclose customer data associated with IP addresses identified as being used for potential copyright infringement (see IRIS 2020-1/18 and IRIS 2020-7/16). Notably, the Supreme Court upheld a court of appeal ruling, concluding that an ISP (Internet Service Provider) was not required to provide customer data to a film distributor, that sought to pursue individuals for possible violation of intellectual property rights, as the privacy interests...

On 6 July 2021, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands (Hoge Raad) delivered its closely-watched judgment concerning the conviction of Dutch politician Geert Wilders for group insult over comments made during a televised speech and media interview (see IRIS 2017-2/25 and IRIS 2020-9/13). Importantly, the Supreme Court held that Wilders’ conviction for group insult should be upheld, and did not violate the right to freedom of expression. Notably, no sentence had been imposed on Wilders by the lower courts, which the Supreme Court also upheld. The case arose in 2014 in the run-up to the Dutch...

On 1 April 2021, an important new law on online gambling and gambling advertising (Online Gambling Act) (Wet Kansspelen op afstand) came into force, including notable amendments to the Dutch Media Act (Mediawet) (see IRIS 2021-1/24). Due to the difficulty of regulating increasingly popular (illegal) foreign gambling websites, the Dutch parliament enacted a legal response. With this new law, the ban on online gambling and the advertising of gambling has been lifted to improve regulation of the market. With the amendment to the Dutch law on gambling, gambling service providers can now request a permit...

On 27 May 2021, the Netherlands Film Fund (Nederlands Filmfonds), the national agency responsible for supporting film production and film-related activities in the Netherlands, launched an important new scheme of support measures for the film industry in the Netherlands. This followed the announcement by the Dutch government that COVID-19 restrictions on cinemas and movie theatres in the Netherlands would be eased from 5 June 2021, with cultural institutions such as theatres, cinemas and concert halls being allowed to open for a maximum of 50 visitors per room (for previous measures, see IRIS 2020-5/18,...