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On 8 October 2012, the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science introduced a bill to amend the Media Act 2008, with regard to “the distribution of television and radio programme channels through broadcasting networks and broadcasting transmitters and the determination of the minimum size of the standard package television and radio programme channels”. By changing the Media Act 2008, the government aims to achieve a broader and technology neutral foundation. The draft law contains a more modern regulation, since the rules of the current Media Act no longer fit the technical and economic...

On 13 June 2012, the Amsterdam Court ordered the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf to cease publication of its weekly programme guide. An interlocutory injunction was sought by four broadcasting organisations (NPO, RTL, SBS and Veronica), which claimed copyright protection in the programming schedules. De Telegraaf considered these schedules as being databases within the meaning of Directive 96/9/EC (the Database Directive) and the protection granted under Article 10 of the Dutch Copyright Act to non-original writings, such as databases, in breach of the Directive. The argument made by De Telegraaf...

On 8 May 2012 the Netherlands adopted a legislative proposal amending the Telecommunicatiewet (Telecommunications Act), thereby laying down the principle of net neutrality (Article 7.4a) in Dutch law. The Netherlands is only the second country in the world (the first was Chile) to adopt net neutrality in its legislation. The principle of net neutrality means that all Internet traffic should be treated as equal by Internet access providers. It secures consumers’ free access to the Internet and prohibits blocking services or prioritising certain types of Internet traffic. In the Netherlands concerns...

On 10 April 2012 the Dutch government adopted an amendment to Article 2139 of the Dutch Media Act 2008, which makes programme data available by abolishing the monopoly held by public broadcasting organisations. The new Article 2139 of the Dutch Media Act 2008 will enter into force on 1 January 2013. The amendment is based on the main conclusions set forth in a 2011 report by the Commissariaat voor de Media (Dutch Media Authority) initiated by the Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science - OCW). The goal of the amendment is to liberalise the market...

On 26 January 2012, the Court of Hertogenbosch annulled a decision by the Province of Noord-Brabant regarding the lowering or funding to the regional broadcaster ‘Omroep Brabant’. Under the Dutch Media Act (Mediawet) each Province is obliged to financially enable at least one regional broadcaster. Specifically Article 2.170 of the Dutch Media Act states that a Province has to enable a media-offer of high quality and has to guarantee continuity of funding, maintaining the quality and quantity that was the standard in 2004. On 2 July 2010 the Province of Noord-Brabant adopted a decision to lower...