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In a judgement of March 14 2018, but published on October 31 2018, the District Court of Amsterdam ruled that a publisher of a Dutch free national newspaper had acted unlawfully by publishing multiple columns — both in print and on its website — in which a columnist accused a well-known Dutch comedian of sexual harassment and rape. The comedian had requested this declaratory decision, and claimed damages for the violation of his right to honor, good name, and reputation. In interim injunction proceedings, lodged by the comedian in 2015, the Court had already ordered the publisher to remove two...

On 1 October 2018, the District Court of The Hague resolved a case concerning the question of whether two children - aged four and two - could be included in the video logs and messages (together: content) that their mother, a professional online influencer, had uploaded to and posted on her social media accounts. After considering the children’s best interests (Article 1:253a Dutch Civil Code (Burgerlijk Wetboek; DCC)), the Court ruled in the negative. Consequently, the Court ordered the mother to permanently delete all previously uploaded and posted content concerning the children. Moreover,...

On 5 September 2018, the District Court of The Hague delivered its judgment in a class action lawsuit filed by several film producers against the Dutch State. The Court ruled that the Dutch State was liable for statements made by a former State Secretary for Security and Justice about the permissibility of reproducing material from illegal sources. The statements concerned the question of whether, under the implementation in Dutch law of the Directive 2001/29/EC (Copyright Directive), reproductions from illegal sources fell within the scope of the private copying exemption. In short, this exemption...

On 27 September 2018, the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) adopted the market analysis decision on Wholesale Fixed Access (WFA). Under the Decision, Dutch telecommunications providers KPN and VodafoneZiggo must grant competitors access to their fixed telecommunications networks in order to mitigate the potential effects of their collective significant market power (Article 14(2) Directive 2002/21/EC - SMP). The Decision is effective as of 1 October 2018. Prior to the Decision of 27 September 2018, the ACM’s market analysis decision of 17 December 2015 already imposed the obligation...

In July 2018, the Dutch Media Authority (CvdM) and the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) published a joint study on digitization and fake news. The ACM and CvdM both monitor the media. The ACM ensures that consumers are well informed and fights unfair competition, and the CvdM’s primary task is to protect the freedom of information by ensuring pluralism, accessibility and the independence of the Dutch media. The study was prompted by the rapidly changing media landscape and the increasing number of possibilities to disseminate fake news. Combining their expertise, the two organisations...