Search results : 1366

In a ruling of 8 October 2019, the German Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court – BGH) overturned a decision by the Oberlandesgericht München (Munich Appeal Court – OLG) to declare a well-known ad blocker lawful. Although the judges of the highest German civil court confirmed the appeal court’s findings with regard to competition law, they thought a number of questions remained unanswered where cartel law was concerned. A legal dispute over the functioning of ‘AdBlock Plus’, which was sold by Eyeo GmbH, has been rumbling on for almost five years. The software,...

On 27 August 2019, the German Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) decided that, before classifying a comment as ‘harmful to minors’ on the basis of the Jugendmedienschutz-Staatsvertrag (Inter-State Agreement on the Protection of Minors in the Media), the author’s fundamental right to freedom of expression must be taken into account. The second chamber of the first senate of the Bundesverfassungsgericht therefore upheld a constitutional complaint lodged by a regional association of the extreme right-wing NPD party. The case concerned the association’s...

On 30 October 2019, the German Bundesregierung (Federal Government) adopted a package of measures to combat right-wing extremism and hate crime, designed in part to extend law enforcement authorities’ powers to deal with online platforms. This follows an attack in Halle in early October, when a heavily armed right-wing extremist, who had been radicalised on the Internet, tried to enter a synagogue and shot two people dead. The attack was one of several recent acts of violence and threats targeting politicians and journalists in particular. The new measures are designed to make it easier...

In a ruling of 30 October 2019, the German Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court) confirmed the rating of Bushido’s rap album ‘Sonny Black’ as harmful to minors. The Berlin rapper’s album glorified violence and contained highly discriminatory lyrics, according to the court. The decision examined the discretionary powers of the German Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien (Federal Examination Office for Media Harmful to Minors – BPjM), the regulatory body responsible for classifying data media and telemedia with content harmful...

In a ruling of 9 September 2019, the Landgericht Berlin (Berlin District Court) rejected an application from a prominent German politician for information about the data of a number of users of the Facebook social media platform who had insulted her in the comments section below a post. However, the court decided that the verbal attacks did not constitute defamation and were therefore not libellous. In the controversial ruling, the judges discussed the circumstances under which the public expression of opinions about politicians constituted libel, an offence punishable under civil and criminal...