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A recent decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) confirms the limits of freedom of expression in Germany in relation to the publication of Nazi-symbols. A German blogger complained under Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) about his criminal conviction for the offence of using symbols of unconstitutional organisations; however the ECtHR recently found no violation of his right to freedom of expression. The applicant, Mr Nix, has a blog in which he writes about certain matters concerning economics, politics and society. One of his blog posts contained a picture...

The Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (association of German public service broadcasters - ARD) is examining the possibility of working with the zero-rating services StreamOn (provided by Deutsche Telekom) and Vodafone Pass. These services enable users to stream programmes over the mobile Internet without using up any of their data allowance. While Zweite Deutsche Fernsehen (ZDF) and the German overseas broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) already work with StreamOn, the ARD is still examining whether a partnership is feasible. In particular,...

In its ruling of 1 February 2018 (Case no. 7 O 17752/17), the Landgericht München (Munich Regional Court - LG München) decided that Vodafone Kabel Deutschland must  block its customers from accessing the streaming portal kinox.to. In injunction proceedings, film producer Constantin Film had requested that the streaming portal be blocked for Vodafone customers because films including ‘Fack Ju Göhte 3’, for which Constantin Film holds the exploitation rights, could be viewed via the portal without the rightsholders’ permission. In March 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union had ruled that...

In a decision of 1 March 2018 (Case no. 7 A 11938/17), the Oberverwaltungsgericht Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate Higher Administrative Court - OVG Rheinland-Pfalz) ruled that the German broadcasting contribution fee is compatible with European law. A private individual from Trier had complained about the levying of outstanding payments by Südwestrundfunk (SWR), arguing that the fee was incompatible with European law because it gave public service broadcasters an unfair advantage over their private competitors. However, this argument was rejected by the court. In its decision, the OVG stated...

In a ruling of 2 February 2018 (case no. 6 U 85/17), the Oberlandesgericht Köln (Cologne Appeal Court - OLG Köln) decided that the telecommunications provider Unitymedia could use its customers’ routers to create a nationwide WLAN network without obtaining the express consent of the customers concerned. Before the case began, the cable network operator Unitymedia had already started using its customers’ routers to build a WLAN network, which it hoped would be Germany’s largest. Customers in the Bundesländer of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hessen and Baden-Württemberg would have been able to access 1.5...