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On 24 February 2017, the Dutch Supreme Court handed down its first application of the EU Court of Justice’s Google Spain judgment (see IRIS 2014-6:1/3). The Supreme Court overturned lower judgments, holding that rights based on Articles 7 (private life) and 8 (personal data) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union in principle outweigh not only the economic rights of search engines, but also the “justified interests” of internet users to access search results. The judgment follows earlier proceedings in lower courts (see IRIS 2014-10/25 and IRIS 2015-5/25), and concerns the following...

On 8 February 2016, Advocate General Szpunar delivered his opinion in Stichting Brein v. Ziggo BV (Case C-610/15) concerning the liability of operators of indexing sites of peer-to-peer networks for copyright infringement. The proceedings began in January 2012, when the District Court of The Hague ordered two Dutch internet access providers (Ziggo and XS4ALL) to block access to The Pirate Bay (TPB). Stichting Brein, a foundation protecting the interests of the Dutch copyright industry, had been granted the right to request the order (see IRIS 2012-2/31). In January 2014, the Court of Appeal in...

On 9 December 2016, the District Court of The Hague convicted Dutch politician Geert Wilders for statements that he made on 19 March 2014 during a televised speech. On this date, Wilders asked his audience during a public meeting whether they wanted more or fewer Moroccans. In response, the audience cheered “Fewer! Fewer! Fewer!” numerous times. Wilders then said: “Well, then we are going to take care of that.” Both Wilders’ statements and the cheering of the audience were recorded and broadcast by the Dutch public broadcaster NOS. The Dutch Public Prosecution Service charged Wilders with incitement...

On 23 December 2016, the Dutch Supreme Court dismissed Ryanair’s complaints against the Court of Appeal’s finding that KRO’s television programme regarding the airline was not unlawful (see previous decisions, in IRIS 2015-10/23 and 2013-7/20). KRO had aired in late 2012, and early 2013, two episodes of a programme in which the business practices of Ryanair were said to compromise flight safety. More specifically, it was said that pilots were encouraged to fly with the absolute minimum of fuel and that they felt obliged to fly whilst feeling unwell. In July 2014, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal upheld...

The Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs signed a new regulation on 24 October 2016 on a right of compensation for subscribers to public electronic communication services. These comprise subscribers to Internet, television, or telephone networks. Following the new rules, subscribers are entitled to compensation in case of full network failure. The new ministerial regulation follows after revision of the Dutch Telecommunications Act. The “Wet Versterking Telecommunicatiebeleid” (Reinforcement of Telecommunications Policy Act) provides a long-awaited reinforcement of the protection of subscribers. The...