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In a dispute concerning the marketing model for the German football league, the Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf Court of Appeal - OLG) has dismissed on technical grounds the appeal lodged by Deutsche Fußball Liga GmbH (DFL), the company responsible for the operation of the German football league, against a decision by the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office - BKartA). The background to the dispute was the plans drawn up by the DFL in the summer of 2008 for the central marketing of the television rights in Bundesliga matches. From the 2009/2010 season onwards, summaries of the Saturday...

In a judgment of 2 September 2009, the Landgericht Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf Regional Court) prohibited the television broadcaster RTL from shooting film footage using a hidden camera in the applicant’s doctor’s surgery, thus upholding the injunction issued by the lower court. In the legal dispute concerned, RTL reporters had made sound and picture recordings at a doctor’s surgery, filming a conversation between the doctor and a person whom he assumed to be a patient but who was actually a reporter. They also filmed the reception area and the staircase leading to the surgery. It was claimed that the...

Since there is no federal model for funding the conversion of cinemas to digital screening (see IRIS 2009-8: 10 and IRIS 2010-1: 1), a number of German Länder have set up their own support schemes. One example is Bavaria, where in August 2009 the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern (Bavarian Film and Television Fund - FFF) launched a special scheme for the comprehensive conversion to digital projection. To this end, cinema owners are to be given grants to help them invest in the necessary technical equipment and in its installation. A grant may be up to 25 % of the costs but no more than EUR 18,000 per screen. Arthouse...

On 11 August 2009, the Bayerische Verwaltungsgerichtshof (Bavarian Administrative Court - BayVGH) (case no. 7 NE 09.1378) rejected an application by the game show broadcaster 9Live for an injunction against the competition rules adopted by the Landesmedienanstalten (state media authorities - LMA). The broadcaster 9Live, which broadcasts phone-in quiz programmes, had asked the BayVGH to conduct a judicial review of the LMA's competition rules. In addition, 9Live had submitted an urgent application for all, or in the alternative, some of the rules to be withdrawn pending the outcome of the judicial...

In a decision of 7 July 2009, the Bayerische Verwaltungsgerichtshof (Bavarian Administrative Court - BayVGH) rejected the appeal of Axel Springer AG concerning its takeover of the broadcasting group ProSiebenSAT.1 (see IRIS 2009-2: 10). The Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien (Bavarian New Media Office - BLM) had refused to approve Axel Springer AG's plan to acquire all the shares in ProSiebenSAT.1 and to submit a public takeover bid for the free-floating preference shares without voting rights attached. It explained that the planned change of ownership might give Axel Springer AG a dominant...