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According to the Landgericht Frankfurt (Frankfurt Regional Court) in a judgment of 10 June 2016 (Case 2-03 O 364/15), manufacturers of smart TVs must provide consumers with better information about the gathering of personal data and must not issue any unreasonably long terms and conditions or privacy policy. The defendant was a manufacturer of internet-enabled smart TVs that operate on the HbbTV standard, which is usually activated by pressing the “red button”. The HbbTV function was installed and switched on when the smart TVs were delivered. The defendant’s smart TVs also feature a user interface...

In a decision of 17 May 2016 (Case 324 O 255/16), the Landgericht Hamburg (Hamburg Regional Court) issued an injunction against TV presenter Jan Böhrmermann prohibiting him from repeating large parts of an “abusive poem” that he read out in a TV programme. In addition to a criminal prosecution, the President of Turkey had made an application under civil law in fast-track proceedings to stop the presenter from repeating the poem. The satirist had read out a poem about the Turkish President entitled “Schmähkritik” (“abusive criticism”) in his TV show “Neo Magazin Royale”, which was rebroadcast on...

In a judgment of 3 June 2016 (Case 324 O 78/15),  the Landgericht Hamburg (Hamburg Regional Court) ruled that a former pupil of the Odenwaldschule boarding school in Hesse, in which child abuse took place on several occasions, is not entitled to injunctive relief against the rebroadcasting by the TV station WDR and the production company of the feature film “Die Auserwählten” (The Favoured Few) depicting those events, despite the fact that he was himself a victim. The Odenwaldschule was the focus of public attention when it came to light that systematic sexual abuse of pupils had been perpetrated...

According to media reports, the Landgericht Aachen (Aachen Regional Court) ruled in a decision of 24 May 2016 (Case 8 O 168/16) that the planned filming of the Gladbeck hostage drama was within the law, and the personality rights of the person convicted of the hostage-taking and murder were no obstacle to carrying out the project. In August 1988, the hostage-taker and another perpetrator robbed a bank in Gladbeck. While they were on the run through Germany and the Netherlands, two hostages and a police officer were killed. Both were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1991 by the Landgericht Essen...

The Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court - BVerwG) ruled, in a judgment of 22 June 2016 (Case 6 C 9.15), that a broadcaster is in breach of the ban on surreptitious advertising if it fails to identify advertising content in one of its programmes when the purpose of the programme does not provide sufficient justification for this. The plaintiff, which operates the TV channel “Sport1”, aired the programme “Learn from the Pros”, originally produced for the American TV market, in which professional poker players provide tips for playing the game. The plaintiff had acquired the programme...