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In a decision handed down on 12 September 2012, the court of appeal in Paris overturned the judgment that had found ALJ Productions, a production company owned by Alexia Laroche Joubert, guilty of unfair competition in respect of her previous employer, Endemol. Endemol is the exclusive international distributor of the Big Brother reality TV programme format, and in France it operates the programmes Loft Story and Secret Story. It felt that the programme Dilemme, produced by ALJ Productions and broadcast between May and July 2010 on the W9 channel, made deliberate use of the essential characteristics,...

Once again the European Court has emphasised the importance of the protection of journalists’ sources, this time in a case concerning searches and seizures carried out at the French sporting daily L'Equipe, the weekly magazine Le Point and at the homes of some of their journalists. This judgment comes only a few months after the judgment of the European Court found a violation of Article 10 of the European Convention by the French authorities for disrespecting the protection of journalists’ sources (ECtHR 12 April 2012, Martin and Others v. France, Appl. Nr. 30002/08). The case Ressiot and Others...

In June 2012 the audiovisual regulatory authority (Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel - CSA) drew up a report on the result of the application of its deliberation on product placement in television programmes, adopted on 16 February 2010 (see IRIS 2010-4/23). The deliberation made provision for such a report to be drawn up two years after it came into force. Adopted in application of Article 14-1 of the Act of 5 March 2009 transposing the AVMS Directive into national legislation, the deliberation authorised product placement in France “in cinematographic works, audiovisual fiction works, and music...

On 23 July 2012, at the end of a thorough three-month examination, the Competition Authority (Autorité de la Concurrence) authorised the acquisition by Vivendi and the Canal Plus Group of the DTV channels Direct 8 and Direct Star, subject to a number of conditions. It should be recalled that on 5 December 2011 the main French pay television operator sent notification of this acquisition, which opened up pay television for the operator. In examining the notification, however, the Competition Authority found that the operation raised “serious doubts” as to impeding competition (see IRIS 2012-5/21),...

On 23 July, in deliberating again on the acquisition of TPS and CanalSat by Vivendi Universal and Canal Plus, the Competition Authority made its authorisation conditional on a number of injunctions “such as to re-establish sufficient competition in the pay television market”. The operation had only been authorised in 2006 on condition that 59 undertakings were respected, and the Competition Authority, noting that the Canal Plus Group had failed to observe ten of these - including some that were of crucial importance - decided in September 2011 to withdraw its decision authorising the operation...