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On 10 February 2009, the European Commission (EC) cleared the proposal on broadcasting market regulation by the Dutch regulator Onafhankelijke Post en Telecommunicatie Autoriteit (OPTA). As a result, OPTA can now impose several regulatory obligations on the four largest cable operators in the Netherlands, Ziggo, UPC, Delta and CAIW, who currently hold dominant positions in Dutch broadcasting markets. First of all, in order to enhance competition, UPC and Ziggo are now obliged to resell their analogue cable network based on regulated prices to other market parties. This will enable these parties...

On 21 January 2009, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal ordered the criminal prosecution of Dutch MP Geert Wilders of the Partij voor de Vrijheid (the Party of Liberty - PVV) for the incitement to hatred and discrimination against, as well as the insult of a group of people on the ground of their religion, penalized in Articles 137d and 137c respectively of the Dutch penal code. The basis for the prosecution were Wilders’ statements about Islam and Muslims in his film Fitna, which was distributed over the Internet, and in several interviews and columns published in national newspapers and online. The...

On 1 January 2009, the Mediawet 2008 (Media Act 2008) came into effect in the Netherlands, replacing the old Mediawet (Media Act). Like its predecessor, the purpose of the new Act is to provide a legal basis for Dutch media policy. The scope of media policy in the Netherlands includes, inter alia, the financing and regulation of national public service broadcasting, the regulation of commercial radio and television and the broadcast of events of major importance for Dutch society. This latter category of events is listed in the accompanying Mediabesuit 2008 (Media Decree 2008). Two reasons can...

Eredivisie N.V. (hereinafter: ENV) is the legal person in charge of organizing the Eredivisie (the highest league) of football in the Netherlands. The football clubs which play in the Eredivisie hold the rights for the broadcasting of their football matches. Defendant Myp2p is a website which provided online live broadcasts of these matches (livestreams). Applicants ENV and the football clubs requested an interlocutory injunction against Myp2p to prevent imminent infringement of their intellectual property rights by, among other things, the livestreaming of the football matches. This ex parte petition...

In the Netherlands a code of conduct on Notice-and-Take-Down (NTD) has been drawn up. The code establishes a procedure for intermediaries that have been notified about online content that is punishable or unlawful. The code was presented to the secretary of Economic Affairs and announced in a press release on 9 October 2008. It was adopted in the context of a project undertaken by the Nationale Infrastructuur Cyber Crime (National Infrastructure against Cybercrime - NICC), a public private partnership that brings together stakeholders to collaborate in the fight against cybercrime. The partnership...