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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...

The Hungarian Parliament implemented the AVMSD’s new rules on video-sharing platform services in May. The new rules were incorporated into the e-Commerce Act through Hungarian legislation, thus the rules were not embedded in media regulation, but in the act which implemented the e-Commerce Directive in 2001. In fact, a hybrid solution was created, since the definitions, such as the definition of a video-sharing service platform, were incorporated into the Hungarian Media Act. In the future, the legal framework surrounding video-sharing services is going to be determined by both the Hungarian...

In his opinion of 2 April 2020 (Case C‑264/19), CJEU Advocate General Henrik Saugmandsgaard Øe suggested that the right to information about users who infringe copyright on video-sharing platforms does not cover the email address, the telephone number, the IP address used to upload the files or the IP address used when the user’s account was last accessed. He was referring to the concept of ‘names and addresses’ set out in Directive 2004/48/EC on the enforcement of intellectual property rights. A request for a preliminary ruling had been submitted by a German court in...

On 1 April 2020, the German Federal Gover nment adopted a bill to amend the Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz (Network Enforcement Act – NetzDG). The proposed reforms are designed, on the basis of lessons learned from the application of the Act, to improve users’ rights in relation to unauthorised deletions and account blocking, and to simplify the process for asserting information rights. They therefore supplement the changes proposed in February under the Gesetzentwurf zur Bekämpfung des Rechtsextremismus und der Hasskriminalität (Draft Act to combat right-wing extremism and...