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According to media reports, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH), in a ruling of 18 September 2014, which has not yet been published in full (case no. I ZR 34/12), decided that an advertisement for video game accessories, written in language likely to appeal to children, represented an unlawful exhortation to children to purchase and therefore infringed Article 3(3) of the Act against unfair competition (Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb - UWG). This ruling is also relevant to the audiovisual media sector, firstly because video games and their advertisement represent audiovisual...

In a ruling of 30 September 2014, which has not yet been published in full (case no. VI ZR 490/12), the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) decided that the public’s right to information should take precedence over a politician’s general privacy rights. Although the judgment concerns print media, it is also relevant to reporting in the audiovisual media sector. The plaintiff held various political posts between 1994 and 2010, including that of Finance Minister, Home Affairs Minister, and Head of the State Chancellery of a German Bundesland. In 1997, he had a daughter from an extra-marital...

On 18 August 2014, the Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (Committee for Youth Protection in the Media – KJM) published a press release, in which it presented the cases it had examined during the first half of 2014 following alleged breaches of the Staatsvertrag über den Schutz der Menschenwürde und den Jugendschutz in Rundfunk und Telemedien (Inter-State Agreement on the Protection of Human Dignity and Minors in Broadcasting and Telemedia – JMStV). In order to monitor the broadcasting sector, the KJM relies on the staff of the Land media authorities, which evaluate possible breaches of the JMStV...

In a ruling of 23 July 2014 (case no. 6 C 31.13), which has not yet been published, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court – BVerwG) decided that the depiction of a brand of beer before and after the live broadcast of a football match on the SAT.1 television channel did not constitute unlawful product placement for the purposes of Article 7(7)(3) of the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (Inter-State Broadcasting Agreement – RStV). During the broadcast of a football match, in which the use of product placement had been mentioned, the TV broadcaster SAT.1 had twice switched to the so-called...

In a decision of 31 July 2014 (case no. 1 BvR 1858/14), the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court – BVerfG) partially upheld an application for a temporary injunction against a procedural order restricting press reporting on a criminal procedure before the Landgericht Hamburg (Hamburg District Court – LG). In the criminal procedure, which concerned a three-year old girl who had died from internal injuries, the LG Hamburg had issued several orders. Firstly, audio, photographic, and video recordings in the courtroom could only be made by a pool of two camera teams (one private and...