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Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, rejected on 20 June 2013 a complaint of undue discrimination made by British Telecommunications (BT) about the refusal of British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) to carry an advertisement for BT’s new sports channels on Sky Sports. The Communications Act 2003, s.319, requires Ofcom to secure that there is no undue discrimination between advertisers, and this is implemented through its Code on the Prevention of Undue Discrimination between Broadcast Advertisers. BSB had refused to carry the advertisement because it does not itself retail the BT channels. It claimed...

In a ruling of 14 August 2013, the Landgericht Köln (Cologne District Court - LG) decided that advertising using a double of a famous person can be inadmissible even if there is no similarity between the facial features and external appearance of the double and the famous person. The famous person may be recognisable thanks to other details that characterise the person concerned. The complaint concerned a TV commercial for the defendant, a furniture store, which included a scene from a TV quiz show in which a presenter wearing glasses and a dark suit had asked a contestant the “all-important question”...

In its decision of 17 July 2013, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) ruled that the copyright protection afforded under the Urheberrechtsgesetz (Copyright Act - UrhG) to books and stories, for example, also applied to literary characters. In the case at hand, the court decided that the children’s character “Pippi Longstocking” created by Astrid Lindgren was copyright protected as a “work of language” in the sense of Article 2(1)(1) UrhG. The combination of external features and specific personality traits justified the protection of a fictional character. The decision was based...

The Cypriot Parliament is discussing a law proposal aiming at stopping all forms of advertising on Ραδιοφωνικό Ίδρυμα Κύπρου (RIK - Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation), the sole public service broadcaster transmitting four radio and three television stations. The proposal was submitted in May 2013 by the ruling party Δημοκρατικός Συναγερμός (DISY - Democratic Rally). If the law is adopted, no radio or television advertising would be allowed in RIK’s prorgrammes as of 1 January 2014. The proposed act would amend the περί Ραδιοφωνικού Ιδρύματος Νόμος (Chapter 300A on Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation...

On 15 July 2013, the Croatian Parliament has adopted the Act Amending the Electronic Media Act. The new Act harmonises the Electronic Media Act with the General Administrative Procedure Act, the Act on Administrative Disputes, the Criminal Code, the Concessions Act and the Services Act, implements terminological alignment with the Lisbon Treaty (OJ C 306) and changes the definition of electronic publications. It terminologically revises and amends the definitions of audiovisual programme, audiovisual commercial communication, advertising, surreptitious audiovisual commercial communication, sponsorship,...