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In a recently published decision of 5 June 2019, the German Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court – BGH), Germany’s highest civil and criminal court, largely confirmed several prison sentences imposed against the operators of the right-wing extremist Internet platform ‘Altermedia Deutschland’. The defendants had appealed against a ruling of the Oberlandesgericht Stuttgart (Stuttgart Higher Regional Court) imposing immediate or suspended prison sentences on one of them for leading a criminal organisation and sedition, and on the others for being members of a criminal organisation and sedition...

In a judgment of 12 September 2019 in Case C-299/17 (VG Media Gesellschaft zur Verwertung der Urheber- und Leistungsschutzrechte von Medienunternehmen mbH v Google LLC), the Court of Justice of the European Union decided that the German regulation that prohibits search engines from using short texts or text excerpts ('snippets') without the publisher’s prior permission was inapplicable because it had not been notified to the Commission before it was adopted. It should have been notified because the corresponding provisions of Articles 87f and 87g of the German Gesetz über Urheberrecht und verwandte...

On 3 July 2019, the Bundesamt für Justiz (Federal Office for Justice – BfJ) fined Facebook Ireland Limited EUR 2 million for infringing the Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz (Network Enforcement Act – NetzDG) in its transparency report for the first half of 2018. Since 1 January 2018, as a social network provider, Facebook has been obliged under Article 2(1) NetzDG to submit a report in German twice a year explaining how it has dealt with complaints about illegal content, and to publish these reports in the Federal Gazette as well ason its own website. According to Article 1(3) NetzDG, unless it is justified,...

In a decision of 12 July 2019, the Oberverwaltungsgericht Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia Higher Administrative Court) confirmed the decision of the Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Networks Agency) to ban Deutsche Telekom’s ‘StreamOn’ service in its current form and rejected an appeal against a first-instance summary judgment of the Verwaltungsgericht Köln (Cologne Administrative Court). ‘StreamOn’ is a so-called zero-rating service, which means that the data used to stream audio and video services from certain content providers is not deducted from mobile customers’ monthly data allowances....

In a decision of 14 June 2019, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) issued a decision explaining the conditions under whichthe expression of an opinion should be categorised as defamatory criticism, meaning it was not protected under the freedom of expression enshrined in Article 5(1)(1) of the Grundgesetz (Basic Law). Thedecidingfactor was whether the remarks had a factual basis. Whether they represented an insult under criminal law depended on the balance between freedom of expression and the personality rights of the individual concerned. In the case at hand, the plaintiff...