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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...

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...