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On 31 May this year, the Federal Ministry of Justice tabled a draft Distance Marketing Law ( FernAG) which, according to the Federal Minister for Justice, should give mail order and electronic commerce customers greater protection. The aim is to bring German legislation into line with the provisions of Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 1997 on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts. The draft's two main provisions for consumer protection are: the full obligation on companies to provide information, and consumers' cancellation rights...

In early May, the television broadcaster tm3 secured the television rights to football matches in the European Champions League. For a total outlay of around DM 800 million, the partners in tm3 , the News Corporation owned by media entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch - majority shareholder in tm3 with 66 % - and the Tele München group, jointly acquired national television broadcasting rights for the next four years' matches in the top European league from the European football union, UEFA. The four-year contract covers exclusive free-TV and pay-TV rights. tm3 was set up in August 1995 as a specialist women's...

In mid-April the Federal Cartel Office ( Bundeskartellamt ) authorised the acquisition by the Kirch group of shares in the pay-TV provider Premiere previously owned by Bertelsmann (CLT/UFA) and Canal+. As a result, when this merger is complete, almost all of the sharesCLT/UFA has retained 5 % - will be owned by the company whose digital subscription channel DF1 is the only other competitor on the German market. This change in ownership is to be the last major development in the German pay-TV market for the time being. Most previous initiatives proposed by the former shareholders to reorganise...

In a judgement delivered on 1 April 1999, the Higher Administrative Court ( Oberverwaltungsgericht OVG ) in Berlin dismissed the appeal of the Berlin-Brandenburg media authority against the decision of the Berlin Administrative Court ( Verwaltungsgericht VG ) of 17 December 1998. In its decision, the VG Berlin had held the practice followed by the television broadcaster n-tv, using a crawling display simultaneously with the normal picture for advertising purposes, to be admissible (see IRIS 1999-2:6). In its judgement, the OVG agreed with the court of first instance that the crawling text, as...

In two judgements delivered on 15 April 1999, the Berlin Administrative Court ( Verwaltungsgericht - VG ) upheld earlier rulings made in the granting of provisional legal protection. The first case (file no. VG 27 A 289.98) concerned whether the feature film " Feuer, Eis und Dynamit " should be indicated as being an extended advertising programme (see IRIS 1999-1:6). The applicant broadcaster had appealed against the decision of the Berlin-Brandenburg media authority ( MABB ) under which the film could only be broadcast if it were indicated as being an extended advertising programme. In the Court's...