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On 19 December 2011, Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (Flemish Media Regulator - VRM) decided that the public broadcaster VRT infringed the rules on commercial communication (Art. 53 Mediadecreet (Flemish Broadcasting Act)) when referring to Jupiler Pro League (the Belgian national football league) during the sports programme Extra Time. Every Monday evening, the programme Extra Time is broadcast on Canvas, a channel of the Flemish public broadcaster. Usually, this programme contains an analysis of each match day of Jupiler Pro League. However, on 10 October 2011, this programme was exceptionally...

On 16 February 2012, the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered its preliminary ruling in the case of SABAM v. Netlog NV. The judgment was issued on a request made by the Court of First Instance of Brussels. In the main proceedings the Belgische Vereniging van Auteurs, Componisten en Uitgevers CVBA (‘SABAM’), a management company representing authors, composers and publishers of musical works, alleged that the hosting service offered by Netlog, a social network, enables its users to make works from SABAM’s repertoire available to the public. Consequently, other users of the network could...

On 12 August 2011, the commercial broadcaster VTM filed a complaint with Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media (Flemish Media Regulator - VRM), because the public broadcaster VRT offered the sports part of its news programme, including summaries of Jupiler Pro League (the Belgian national football league) on its website, Sporza.be. VRM ruled that this practice infringes Art. 124 para 4 Mediadecreet (Flemish Broadcasting Act). In June 2011, VTM bought the broadcasting rights of the Jupiler Pro League highlights for the 2011-2014 seasons. In order to guarantee the public’s right to information, the Flemish...

On 24 November 2011 the European Court of Justice delivered its long-awaited judgment on the legality of injunctions obliging ISPs to install filtering systems on their networks for reasons of copyright enforcement. The case involved a dispute between Scarlet Extended SA, an internet access provider operating in Belgium, and the Belgian collective management organisation Société d’Auteurs Belge - Belgische Auteurs Maatschappij (Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers - SABAM). SABAM initiated the proceedings alleging that Scarlet (formerly Tiscali) has knowingly permitted the illegal downloading...

The European Commission has requested Belgium and the UK to implement outstanding provisions of the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) Directive. The AVMS Directive aims at ensuring a single market and legal certainty for Europe’s TV and audiovisual industry. This is done through the creation of a level playing -field for both broadcast and on-demand audiovisual media services across borders, while ensuring cultural diversity, the protection of children and consumers, the safeguarding of media pluralism and combating racial and religious hatred. This Directive is based on the principle of the...