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The Telecommunications and Consumer Protection Order (Telekommunikations-Kundenschutzverordnung - TKV) was finally approved by the Federal Government on 9 December 1997. Following liberalisation of the telecommunications market and the abolition of monopolies, the TKV lays down general conditions for the use of telecommunications services, including the rights and obligations of service providers and users, the conclusion of contracts, entitlement to services and liability. The TKV allows users to keep their telephone numbers when they change service providers, as long as they remain in the same...

In a judgment delivered at the end of January, the Court of Appeal (Oberlandesgericht - OLG) in Karlsruhe has ordered a manufacturer of dairy products to pay damages amounting to DEM 155,000 to a singer on the grounds of infringement of his personality rights. In a commercial for its products, the company first showed an actor dressed in Russian costume, then a well-known actor and entertainer. Whereas in the second case the artist himself did indeed announce the advertisement and was paid the amount he claimed for his participation in the commercial, the first part unfortunately showed an impersonation...

Early in August 1997, a German Regional League match was to be transmitted on the Internet for the first time. The cost of setting up several cameras was to be covered by sponsors, in return for the right to insert their logos. However, the German Football Association (DFB) vetoed the project, on the ground that all broadcasting rights to the match between Wuppertaler SV and Preußen Münster had already been sold. It argued that these contracts were not restricted to television, but covered the transmission of all moving pictures. Wuppertaler SV and its lawyers see the legal situation differently....

The Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ( Österreichischer Rundfunk - ORF) has stepped up its efforts to put an end to the relaying of its first programme, ORF1, on Deutsche Telekom AG’s cable networks in Bavaria. So far, ORF’s programme has been fed onto the Bavarian networks under a “general cable agreement”, concluded in 1991 between Deutsche Telekom, on the one hand, and ORF, Swiss television and other foreign broadcasters on the other. This gives Deutsche Telekom the right to relay foreign programmes on cable in areas where antenna reception is also possible. ORF’s action is motivated by the...

Having agreed in June 1996 to merge the German Pay-TV channels Premiere and DF1, Bertelsmann AG (CTL/UFA) and the Kirch Group have now notified the European Commission, as the authority responsible for supervising mergers under the Concentrations Control Regulation (Regulation (EEC) No. 4064/89 of 21 December 1989 on the control of concentrations between undertakings). The Commission will shortly be considering whether the merger, which is of Community significance, is compatible with Article 2 of the Regulation. At the same time, the Investigating Committee on Media Concentrations (Kommission...