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In a decision of 18 July 2018 (Case no. 1 BvR 1675/16), the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court - BVerfG) declared that the German broadcasting contribution fee, which has been levied on every household to fund public service broadcasting in Germany since 2013, was broadly compatible with the German Constitution. In accordance with Article 2 of the Rundfunkbeitragsstaatsvertrag (Inter-State Agreement on the broadcasting contribution fee), the broadcasting contribution fee must be paid by every adult homeowner in Germany, regardless of how many public broadcasting services they...

On 5 June 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered a judgment in the case of Unabhängiges Landeszentrum für Datenschutz Schleswig-Holstein v Wirtschaftsakademie Schleswig-Holstein GmbH (Case C-210/16). The judgment interprets the notion of a “controller” - one of the key concepts of the European data protection framework - within the context of a relationship between Facebook and the administrator of a fan page created on Facebook's platform. In addition, it clarifies the scope of the enforcement powers of the national data protection authorities in relation to local offices...

Since the judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the case of Google Spain SL, Google Inc. v. Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (see IRIS 2014-6/3), and the explicit recognition in Article 17 of the General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679) of the right to erasure (“the right to be forgotten - see IRIS 2018-6/7), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has introduced and applied important principles with regard to the “right to be forgotten” with respect to both Article 8 (the right to respect for private life) and Article 10 (the right to freedom of expression)...

On 18 April 2018, the German Landesmedienanstalten (regional media authorities) decided that three live streams offered online by BILD, Germany’s highest-circulation newspaper, whose website, Bild.de, is the most viewed German newspaper site on the Internet, should be classified as broadcasting. The newspaper had failed to obtain the licence that, according to Article 20 et seq. of the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (Inter-State Broadcasting Agreement - RStV), is required to broadcast legally in Germany. The media authorities’ decision concerned the streams “BILD live”, “Die richtigen Fragen” and “Bild...

According to media reports, the Landgericht Berlin (Berlin Regional Court - LG Berlin) decided in an interim procedure on 23 March 2018 (Case no. 31 O 21/18) that Facebook had acted unlawfully by deleting a user’s comment on the grounds of alleged breaches of its guidelines. The decision is significant, not least because it is the first time since the Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz (Network Enforcement Act - NetzDG) entered into force that a court has ruled on Facebook’s deletion strategy in a real-life case. The decision concerns events that took place in January 2018. A Facebook user had posted...