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On 20 April 2004, the Eerste Kamer (the Dutch Senate) adopted an Act to implement the EC Electronic Communications Framework (see IRIS 2002-3: 4) into Dutch law (Act of 22 April 2004). The adoption of this Act introduces a number of modifications to the existing Telecommunicatiewet (Telecommunications Act), which entered into force in December 1998. Major changes include improved consumer protection (including anti-spam regulation) and a more flexible approach to the application of competition law. Furthermore, there is now a single regulatory framework that applies to all kinds of electronic...

On 21 April 2004, the European Commission announced its decision to refer to the European Court of Justice the six Member States that had still not fully implemented the new regulatory framework for electronic communications into their national law (i.e. Belgium, Germany, Greece, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands). The new framework was to be implemented by July 2003, but 8 Member States failed to meet this deadline and in October 2003 the Commission opened infringement proceedings against those States (see IRIS 2003-10: 5 and IRIS 2004-2: 4). Proceedings against two Member States, Spain (see...

On 12 March 2004, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that the Dutch Internet provider XS4ALL is allowed to refuse spam on its network. AbFab, a Dutch marketing company, sent large amounts of unsolicited commercial e-mail to subscribers of XS4ALL. XS4ALL applied for an injunction to prevent this, which was granted by the President of the Court of Amsterdam in March 2002 (see IRIS 2002-4: 11). Shortly after that, the Court of Appeal set aside the judgment of the Court of Amsterdam. In the final appeal, the Supreme Court stated that XS4ALL has exclusive rights to its computer capacity, transmission capacity...

The Commissariaat voor de Media (the Dutch Media Authority) has recently published the Beleidslijn zendtijdaanvragen van kerkgenootschappen en genootschappen op geestelijke grondslag (Policy on applications for broadcasting time for religious and other spiritual organisations). This policy is based on Section 39f of the Mediawet (the Dutch Media Act), according to which the Media Authority may allocate national public broadcasting time to religious and other spiritual organisations every five years. On the basis of this recently-published policy, the Media Authority shall evaluate the applications...

The Dutch television programme " Breekijzer " was fined by the Commissariat voor de Media (the Dutch Media Authority - CvdM) for self-promotion. The broadcaster of the programme, SBS6, appealed, but the Court rejected the appeal on the merits of the case. In the final appeal, the ABRvS (the Dutch Supreme Court for Administrative Law) upheld the verdict of the CvdM. According to Article 52j of the Mediabesluit (Dutch Media Regulation), commercial broadcasters may not show names, pictorial marks, services and activities, etc., of persons, companies or institutions in television programmes, when...