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On 17 November 2020, new amendments to the Latvian Electronic Mass Media Law (EMML) implementing the amended Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) were announced. The amendments to the EMML have been developed to transpose the AVMSD and to adapt the regulatory framework to the audiovisual and media environment, which has changed rapidly and significantly over the last decade due to digitalisation and globalisation. Firstly, the EMML has been supplemented by the clarification of existing definitions or the addition of new definitions for services or service providers. The definition...

On 7 November 2020, the new Medienstaatsvertrag (State Media Treaty – MStV) entered into force in Germany, replacing the previous Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (State Broadcasting Treaty). The treaty not only transposes the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), amended under Directive (EU) 2018/1808, into national legislation, but also addresses other elements of the German media system in the context of a changing media landscape. In particular, it contains provisions on the findability and prominence of digital channels that are applicable to media platforms, user interfaces and...

On 13 October 2020, the German Bundesministerium der Justiz und für Verbraucherschutz (Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection – BMJV) published a bill to adapt copyright law to the requirements of the digital single market. The bill mainly contains proposals for the implementation of Directive (EU) 2019/790 on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (DSM Directive) and Directive (EU) 2019/789 (the Satellite and Cable Directive, or SatCab Directive). In particular, the bill contains a proposal for a Urheberrechts-Diensteanbieter-Gesetz (Copyright Service Provider Act –...

On 10 September, the European Commission presented its evaluation report on the Code of Practice on Disinformation, which was launched at the end of 2018. The report takes into account the annual self-evaluation reports of the platforms that have signed the code (Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Mozilla and TikTok). These platforms have set up policies aimed in particular at reducing advertising opportunities and economic incentives for distributors of online disinformation and at creating functionalities that give prominence to reliable information. The report notes that the quality of the...

On 2 July 2020, the European Commission published two important sets of guidelines pursuant to the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) which extends audiovisual rules to what are termed video-sharing platforms (see IRIS 2019-1/1). The first set of guidelines concerns the application of the “essential functionality” criterion of the definition of a video-sharing platform under the AVMSD; while the second set of guidelines relates to the calculation of the share of European works in on-demand catalogues. First, under Article 28b(1) of the AVMSD, member states are...