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On 23 July 2008, the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office - BKartA) informed the DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga GmbH (German Football League - DFL) that the central marketing model it had proposed for the Bundesliga broadcasting rights covering the period from 2009 to 2015 infringed cartel law because of a lack of appropriate consumer involvement and that, if it were implemented, it could therefore not be approved. The body responsible for protecting competition recommended that a summary of the matches should be broadcast on a free-to-air TV channel accessible to a large proportion of the viewing...

Within the space of a few weeks, various courts dealt with the question of whether Internet-enabled personal computers (PCs) used for business purposes should be subject to the broadcasting licence fee. The decisions focused particularly on Art. 5 para. 3 of the Rundfunkgebührenstaatsvertrag (Inter-State Agreement on Broadcasting Fees - RGebStV), which contains an exemption for new types of reception devices. On 15 July 2008, the Verwaltungsgericht Braunschweig (Brunswick Administrative Court) ruled that an Internet-enabled computer used for business purposes was not subject to the licence fee...

In a ruling of 17 July 2008 (case no. I ZR160/05), the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) decided on the admissibility of collecting programmes partly aimed at children and young people. The case concerned an advertising campaign by the firm Nestlé. The company had printed points on the packaging of its chocolate bars. Every 25 points was worth EUR 5 at an Internet mail-order firm. Since this advertising campaign was partly aimed at children and young people, the Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband e. V. (Federation of German Consumer Organisations - vzbr) filed an injunction suit against...

On 16 June 2008, the American music publisher Sony/ATV Music Publishing concluded an agreement with the Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte (Association for Musical Performance and Mechanical Duplication Rights - GEMA), under which the English-language music titles owned by the publisher will be made available for mobile and online use throughout Europe via a single licence. As a result, licensees will no longer have to reach individual agreements with the respective collecting societies in every European country. In accordance with the wishes of the...

On 12 June 2008, the Minister-Presidents of the Länder discussed and drew provisional conclusions concerning the draft 12. Staatsvertrag zur Änderung rundfunkrechtlicher Staatsverträge (12th Inter-State Agreement Amending Inter-State Broadcasting Agreements - RÄStV). Particular attention was paid to the definition of the remit of public service broadcasting, particularly in the field of new media. This was triggered by the need to implement the compromise reached with the European Commission last year as part of the procedure for monitoring state aid to ARD and ZDF (see IRIS 2007-6: 3). There is...