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The Onafhankelijke Post en Telecommunicatie Autoriteit (Independent Post and Telecommunications Authority - OPTA) has published its final rules and tariffs for Holland’s two largest cable operators, UPC and Ziggo. Already on 22 December 2009, the European Commission stated that it had no comments on the draft version of the decision by OPTA (see IRIS 2010-2: 1/3). Now OPTA has published a slightly amended version of its decision. Last year, Holland’s four largest cable operators were labeled as having significant market power by OPTA. However, OPTA imposed a ‘Wholesale Line Rental - Cable’ obligation...

On 29 September 2009, the Gerechtshof Amsterdam (Amsterdam Court of Appeal) finalised its interlocutory judgment of 24 February 2009. The court found a regulatory clause prohibiting the placement of satellite dishes on vacation homes to be unfair and unreasonable under Dutch private law. The final judgment came after a separate hearing with the parties. In that hearing, the parties were given the opportunity to give their opinions on the question of whether in this case the internet could function as a satisfactory alternative to satellite dishes. The case involved a dispute between a company that...

On 19 December 2009 the implementation of Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) in the Media Act and the Tobacco Act was made official in the Netherlands. The bill for this implementing act was accepted by the Tweede Kamer, the lower chamber of the Dutch Parliament, on 30 June 2009 and by the Eerste Kamer, the first chamber of the Dutch Parliament, on 8 December 2009. The AVMSD, the successor to the Television without Frontiers Directive, introduced the term ‘audiovisual media service’ as its central concept. The goal of the Directive was to create a modern (technically neutral) and harmonised...

The European Commission has approved the tariffs suggested by the Dutch Telecom Regulator Onafhankelijke Post en Telecommunicatie Autoriteit (Independent Post and Telecommunications Authority - OPTA). Two Dutch cable operators, UPC and Ziggo, are now obliged to charge other providers a fixed price, set by OPTA, for their products. These alternative providers can then resell the acquired analogue radio and TV signals to their customers. On 19 August 2008, OPTA held a national consultation on its plans for opening up cable networks in the Netherlands. OPTA intended to encourage lower price levels...

The Dutch Copyright Act (‘Auteurswet’) is the guardian of the cultural heritage in the Netherlands. The Act grants protection to the creators of literary, scientific, artistic and many more types of work. In 1803, under the so-called ‘Book Act’ (‘Boekenwet’), publishers were protected against the reproduction of their books and music by other publishers. During the period when the Netherlands formed part of the French empire (1810-1813), the subject of protection changed in accordance with French law and copyright became a right of the author. The first Dutch Copyright Act dates back to 1817. Under...