Search results : 121

On 31 January 2018, the European Commission decided that Sweden’s intention to impose a ban on alcohol advertising on two UK-based broadcasters that target mainly Swedish audiences is not compatible with EU law. This is the first Commission decision to be based on Article 4 of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (2010/13/EU) (AVMSD). Under the AVMSD, the laws applicable to a broadcaster are determined on the basis of the country-of-origin principle. According to this principle, a broadcaster must comply only with the rules of the EU member state in which it is established, even if it broadcasts...

On 22 December 2017, the Swedish Supreme Court announced that the appeal on the decision to seize The Pirate Bays (“TPB”) Swedish domain names would not be granted a probationary permit, meaning that the Swedish Court of Appeal’s decision would remain unchanged. The legal proceeding against the Swedish domain organisation Punkt SE (ISS) was initiated in April 2015, when the Swedish prosecutor filed a complaint with the objective of hindering access to TPB through their Swedish domain names. “Thepiratebay.se” and “Piratebay.se” were both used for the illegal file sharing of copyright-protected works. The...

On 17 February 2017, the European Commission issued a decision on the temporary suspension of the retransmission of a television channel in Lithuania. On 16 November 2016 the Lithuanian Radio and Television Commission adopted a decision pursuant to the Law on Provision of Information to the Public, which suspended for three months the retransmission, including on the Internet, of the Russian TV channel “RTR Planeta.” The decision entered into force on 21 November 2016 after the settlement with the Swedish authorities as the transmitting member state and broadcaster was not reached. This is not...

The decision in Rolf Anders Daniel Pihl v. Sweden deals with a complaint about an alleged breach of the applicant’s right to privacy and reputation under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), because the Swedish authorities had refused to hold the operator of a website liable for a defamatory blog post and an anonymous online comment. Again, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) applies a crucial distinction between illegal hate speech and defamation, limiting the liability of the operator of the blog when it (only) concerns defamation, and not incitement to violence....

On 9 January 2017, the Swedish District Court of Värmland sentenced the athletics coach, lecturer and former CEO of the Swedish National Cross Country Skiing Team, Ulf Karlsson, to fines amounting to a total of SEK 24,000 for gross slander of the footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović. Mr Karlsson had been charged with making statements during a debate on doping in team sports in which he claimed that Mr Ibrahimović had used doping during his time as a player in Juventus FC. The case against Mr Karlsson included two separate charges: according to Mr Ibrahimović, Mr Karlsson had slandered him both during...