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In a recent application for judicial review, the Irish Supreme Court confirmed a High Court ruling regarding the broadcasting of a religious advertisement ( See IRIS 1998-1: 6). The High Court had upheld the refusal of the Independent Radio and Television Commission to permit an independent radio station to broadcast an advertisement for the showing of a video on a religious topic. Section 10 subsection 3 of the Radio and Television Act 1988, prohibits advertisements directed towards any religious or political end, or related to an industrial dispute. The appellant submitted that the subsection...

In a decision given at the beginning of February this year, the Federal Court ( Bundesgerichtshof - BGH) abandoned its previous position that comparative advertising violated Section 1 of the Unfair Competition Act ( Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb - UWG) and was thus on principal unlawful (see IRIS 1998-3:3). In reaching its decision, it relied on Directive 97/55/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 October 1997, amending Directive 84/450/EEC concerning misleading advertising ( see IRIS 1997-10: 4), so as to include comparative advertising - and did so before the time allowed...

On 20 May 1998, the Nuremberg-Fürth Regional Court upheld an earlier decision of 18 February 1998, forbidding a lawyer to advertise his services with the help of an Internet guest-book. This judgment refers to a lawyer with a homepage guest-book, on which anyone can enter information, which is then open to inspection by all other users. The lawyer concerned claims that he does not use his guest-book to advertise. It does not serve to collect commissions and addresses, but as a means of communication, like letters, telephone or fax. He also points out that, under the professional rules applying...

In December 1997, the Traunstein Regional Court set a precedent by prohibiting the sending of unsolicited e-mail advertising via the Internet, and the Regional Court in Berlin has now given two decisions which follow the same line. For a long time already, the courts have consistently upheld that the sending of unsolicited advertising matter and prospectuses by fax violates Section 1 of the Unfair Competition Act ( Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb - UWG) and also Article 823 I of the Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch - BGB), when the recipient has not consented or his consent cannot be...

In response to a proposal by the Federal Department for Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications ( Eidgenössischen Departements für Umwelt, Verkehr, Energie und Kommunikation - UVEK), the Swiss Government adopted principles for future licensing practice on 25 February 1998, setting its media policy on a new and more liberal basis. In its report, the Government assumes that, as licensing authority, it enjoys a wide measure of discretion, since no one apart from Swiss Radio and Television (Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft - SRG) is in principle entitled to a licence. It is...