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The German Bundestag passed the sixth Act amending the Act against Restrictions on Competition (Gesetzes gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkung - GWB) on 8 May 1998. The Federal Council (Bundesrat) also passed it by a large majority on 29 May 1998. The way is therefore clear for the Act to take effect on 1 January 1999. At the end of last year, the Federal Court ( Bundesgerichtshof - BGH) had ruled that central marketing of television rights for the home matches of teams competing for the European Cup and the European CupWinners' Cup violated Section 1, para. 1, sentence 1 of the GWB (see IRIS 1998-1: 7)....

On 28 May, in criminal proceedings against the former managing director of the Internet server, CompuserveGermany, the Munich District Court (Amtsgericht München - AG) imposed a two-year prison sentence, which was later suspended on payment of a fine of DEM 100,000. The judge found that the accused had, in 1995 and 1996, wilfully given users access to child and animal pornography via the parent company in the United States. The unlawful material had been stored in so-called newsgroups on computers operated by the parent company. The prosecution had asked for an acquittal, believing that the main...

In a judgment of 12 May 1998, the Hamburg Regional Court (Landgericht Hamburg - LG) found that a homepage operator, against whom proceedings had been brought because of a link to defamatory material on another homepage, was liable for damages under Articles 823 I, 823 II and 249ff of the Civil Code ( Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch - BGB). The homepage accessed via the link contained allegations and opinions which were defamatory and insulting to the plaintiff. The defendant argued that he had, by providing links to various pages, set up an "opinion forum", and had also expressly indicated on his own...

With an eye to the expiry of the system of balancing of financial needs in the year 2000, the discussions on the financing system for ARD which have been going on for years have entered into a new decisive phase. Under the present regulations, in accordance with the Financial Agreement between the Länder on Broadcasting (Rundfunkfinanzierungsstaatsvertrag), the big broadcasters within the broadcasters' group support the small ones which are not able to completely cover their needs as determined by the Commission for Notification of Financial Requirements (Kommission zur Ermittlung des Finanzbedarfs...

The Investigating Commission on Media Concentrations (Kommission zur Ermittlung der Konzentration im Medienbereich - KEK) (see IRIS 1997-6: 13) has formally approved the merger of Luxembourg's CLT and the Bertelsmann subsidiary UFA. At the end of the investigation procedure the Commission concluded that the merger, effective since January 1997, gave the two companies a viewer market share of approximately 27%, i.e. below the ceiling of 30% indicated in Section 26 of the Agreement between the Federal States on Broadcasting applicable in the Federal Republic of Germany. There was therefore no reason...