Search results : 399

On 19 July 2011 the European Commission sent requests for information in the form of letters of formal notice, the first step in the process of an EU infringement procedure, to 20 EU member states. The member states in question, namely Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain, have not yet notified to the Commission measures to implement the new EU Telecoms Package, formally adopted after two years of heated negotiations at the end of 2009...

In its judgment of 28 July 2011 the Court of Justice of the European Union dismissed an appeal by Mediaset SpA, a digital terrestrial programme broadcaster, against a judgment of the General Court of 15 June 2010 in Case T-177/07. The judgment reaffirmed that subsidies granted to consumers in Italy for the purchase of certain digital terrestrial television decoders should be qualified as unlawful State aid, as the subsidy was favouring Mediaset’s terrestrial programme over its rivals’ satellite programmes. According to Italian legislation, transmissions in analogue TV broadcasting mode should have...

The Autorità per le garanzie nelle comunicazioni (the Italian National Communications Authority - AGCOM) has published a number of press releases and official statements stating the conditions that the media need to follow in order to preserve media pluralism. Italy is currently in the throes of elections, as the provincial and municipal elections were held on the 15 and 16 of May, while a Referendum on four matters will also take place on the 12 and 13 of June. AGCOM recalls that equal treatment (par condicio) is mandatory in the run-up to an election. This applies to TV, radio and newspapers...

A recent decision of the Court of Rome established for the first time liability for contributory infringement for search engines that do not take an active role in combating online piracy. The Ninth Section of the Court of Rome accused Yahoo! of cooperation with (or failure to combat) online piracy. For ignoring the letter of formal notice from the copyright holders of the Iranian film “About Elly”, Yahoo! Italy was found to have become an accessory in the spreading of pirated links. The compatibility of this decision with the EU’s E-Commerce Directive’s provisions on the non-responsibility of...

On 23 March 2011 The Italian telecoms regulator, Agcom, launched a consultation on the allocation of wireless frequencies in the 800, 1800, 2000 and 2600MHz bands, and re-farming of the 900, 1800 and 2100MHz bands. The aim of the consultation is to verify the need for limitation of access to those bands and to determine the competence of the authority in its regulatory role. The consultation is open for 30 days.