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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...

In a ruling of 21 February 2018 (case C-132/17), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) explained that neither a video channel on a video platform (in this case, YouTube), on which Internet users can only view short promotional videos, nor videos posted on such platforms, can be classified as audiovisual media services in the sense of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD - 2010/13/EU). The decision concerns a legal dispute between car manufacturer Peugeot Deutschland GmbH and the environmental and consumer protection organisation Deutsche Umwelthilfe e. V. Peugeot runs a channel...

In a decision of 14 December 2017, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) rejected an application for permission to appeal filed by Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) concerning the long-running proceedings relating to the Tagesschau app. The case concerned the nature of the Tagesschau app on a specific date: 15 June 2011. The plaintiffs are publishing companies that sell newspapers in printed form and/or as Internet- and app-based services. Their argument against the providers of the Tagesschau app, the ARD, and NDR in particular, was that the app was too ‘press-like’. The case was initially...

On 19 October 2017, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered its judgment in the case of Fuchsmann v. Germany, which concerned the online version of a New York Times article accessible in Germany. The applicant in the case is an internationally active entrepreneur in the media sector, and holds the position of Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress. In June 2001, the New York Times published an article about an investigation into corruption against R.L. The article was entitled “[L] Media Company Faces a Federal Inquiry”, and included the statements that the applicant had “ties...

The Gesetz zur Verbesserung der Rechtsdurchsetzung in sozialen Netzwerken (Act to improve law enforcement in social networks - NetzDG) entered into force on 1 October 2017. The new law is designed to force social networks to deal more quickly and more comprehensively with complaints, in particular from users, about hate speech and other criminal content. The act applies to social networks defined in Section 1(1)(1) NetzDG as telemedia service providers which, for profit-making purposes, operate Internet platforms designed to enable users to share any content with other users or to make such content...