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IRIS 2006-9:1/29 [NL] Recommendations to Level the Dutch Commercial Television Playing Field

In May 2006, the Dutch Media Authority published its report on the regulation of the Dutch commercial television market. In this report, the Media Authority analyses the current highly competitive commercial television market and concludes that there is no level playing field as not all competitors are judged by the same standards. The reason for this is that one of the three competitors, RTL Nederland, operates under a Luxembourg broadcasting licence and as such falls under the jurisdiction of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, whereas the others are subject to Dutch regulation. Even though both the...

IRIS 2006-9:1/28 [NL] Dutch Court Allows Media Bugging by Intelligence Service in Special Circumstances

In January 2006, reporters of the Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf received confidential information from an anonymous source about a drugs dealer. This information was leaked by a Dutch intelligence service (AIVD) insider to the underworld. Prior to publishing the story, the reporters informed the AIVD about the leak. Subsequently, the AIVD decided to spy on the reporters by tapping their phones and internet connections. In the court case that followed, De Telegraaf asked the judge to order the State to cease the tapping and to delete every record and every copy concerning the reporters. The...

IRIS 2006-8:1/26 [NL] Cable Operator’s Comparative Advertising Judged Unlawful

The District Court of Arnhem delivered its judgment on a case pitting Dutch cable operator UPC against Dutch telephone and Internet provider KPN. It ruled that UPC’s comparative advertising is unlawful towards KPN. In commercials, which appeared on radio and television, on the Internet and in advertising leaflets, UPC offered the possibility to telephone via its television cable network, explicitly mentioning as an advantage that customers no longer need KPN’s services. KPN filed a suit against UPC arguing that by using the “KPN” logo in a denigrating manner the cable operator infringed its trademark...

IRIS 2006-8:1/7 European Commission: Excessive State Aid to Dutch Public Service Broadcaster Must be Recovered

The European Commission has ordered the Dutch authorities to recover EUR 76,3 million plus interest from NOS, the umbrella organization of public broadcasters in the Netherlands. An investigation under EC Treaty state aid rules into ad hoc payments to the public broadcasters between 1994 and 2005 showed that the payments exceeded the financial needs of public broadcasters for public service purposes. The Dutch public broadcasting system consists of 19 public service broadcasters. NOS is both a broadcaster and the coordination and management organization of the individual public service broadcasters....

IRIS 2006-7:1/28 [NL] Court Puts an End to Exploitation of Mp3 Search Engine

The Court of Appeal of Amsterdam has decided that Techno Design’s exploitation of the mp3 search engine zoekmp3.nl is unlawful with regard to copyright owners and owners of neighbouring rights. This is the outcome of the appeal Stichting BREIN (BREIN Foundation- an entity representing copyright owners) filed a case against a previous judgment of the District Court. Zoekmp3.nlfacilitates the search for mp3 music files on the World Wide Web. It provides Internet users with a hyperlink or deeplink to the server of the user whose computer contains the requested file. By clicking on the link, the file...