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On 9 October 2013, the Gesetz gegen unseriöse Geschäftspraktiken (Act Against Dubious Business Practices), also known as the Anti-Abzock-Gesetz (Anti-Rip-Off Act), entered into force. It had been adopted by the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) on 27 June 2013 and the Bundesrat (upper house) on 20 September 2013 (doc. no. 638/13). The Act is designed to prevent the current practice of issuing mass cautions for copyright infringements, as well as dubious telephone transactions and debt collection methods. In future, paid subscriptions or competition entries concluded by telephone will only be...

In a ruling of 26 September 2013 (case no. VG 27 K 231.12), the Verwaltungsgericht Berlin (Berlin Administrative Court - VG) decided that a broadcaster licensed to broadcast programmes nationwide was not permitted to replace the advertising on its channel with different regional advertisements. This was not covered by the national broadcasting licence under the terms of Article 20a of the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (Inter-State Broadcasting Agreement). Television broadcaster ProSieben instigated the proceedings against the Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg (Berlin-Brandenburg media authority - mabb),...

In a ruling of 22 August 2013 (case no. 2 A 10002/13.OVG), the Oberverwaltungsgericht Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate Administrative Court of Appeal - OVG) decided that the depiction of a brand of beer before and during the live broadcast of a football match on the Sat.1 television channel had constituted unlawful product placement in the sense of Article 7(7)(3) of the Rundfunkstaatsvertrag (Inter-State Broadcasting Agreement - RStV). During the broadcast of a UEFA Europa League match, in which the use of product placement had been mentioned, TV broadcaster Sat.1 had twice switched to the...

Along with amendment proposals for commercial radio television organisations (see IRIS 2013-10/13), another draft law is aimed at harmonising the Law regulating the public service broadcaster Ραδιοφωνικό Iδρυμα Κύπρου (RIK - Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation) with the provisions of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (2010/13/EU). In addition to the audiovisual media services of RIK, the amendments also concern radio regulation. The amendments regulate the following - Categories of goods and services, for which television advertising is prohibited during specific timeframes. - Rules about the...

On 12 September 2013, the National Assembly adopted two decisions for information purposes regarding two reports of the Council for Electronic Media (CEM), which cover the period from 1 January 2012 to 30 June 2012 and the period from 1 July 2012 to 31 December 2012 respectively. The CEM is obliged under the provisions of Article 86(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria and Article 39(1) of the Radio and Television Act to submit to the National Assembly a report on its activity for the first half of each current year not later than 31 October in the same year and for the second half...