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According to media reports, the CDU/CSU and FDP coalition committee decided on 5 April 2011 to overturn the Gesetz zur Erschwerung des Zugangs zu kinderpornographischen Inhalten in Kommunikationsnetzen (Act on the obstruction of access to child pornography via communication networks - Zugangserschwerungsgesetz), which was passed by the previous government on 18 June 2009 with the aim of enabling internet sites with child pornography content to be blocked. The law came into force on 17 February 2010 but, in accordance with the coalition agreement of the then newly-formed Federal Government and on...

As some facts remain to be clarified, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG) has referred a dispute concerning the allocation of frequencies below 1GHz for mobile telephony back to the lower court. In particular, the BVerwG criticised the fact that the existence of spectrum scarcity, which is a necessary precondition for the auction procedure, had not been sufficiently established. The Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency - BNetzA), which is responsible for the allocation of radio frequencies, had ordered the allocation by auction of the frequencies previously...

On 2 March 2011, the German cabinet adopted and published the government’s draft amendment to the Telekommunikationsgesetz (Telecommunications Act - TKG). The main purpose of the proposal is the implementation of the changes to the EU’s regulatory framework for electronic communications adopted at the end of 2009. Under the conditions established by the Directive, the implementation must be completed by May. As early as September 2010, the ministry responsible, the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie (Federal Ministry for the Economy and Technology) forwarded the ministerial draft...

The Kommission für Zulassung und Aufsicht (Commission for Licensing and Supervision - ZAK) of the Landesmedienanstalten (regional media authorities) decided on 16 March 2011 that the law does not permit the television broadcasts of the Bundestag proceedings, which have been produced since 1990, in their present form. The reason why the ZAK has made this ruling is that the programme has been distributed unencrypted via satellite and cable and as a webstream since January 2011. Moreover, the editorial organisation of the programme, which originally consisted to a very large extent of live broadcasts...

In accordance with its provisional assessment of 22 February 2011 (see IRIS 2011-4/19), the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office - BKartA) rejected on 17 March 2011 the plan of RTL and ProSiebenSat.1 to set up a joint venture for the establishment and operation of an online video platform. In the Cartel Office’s opinion, such a platform would further strengthen the two broadcasting groups’ existing market-dominating duopoly. In particular, the plan would have the effect of preserving the current situation on the television advertising market and transferring it to in-stream advertising in online...