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In rulings of 29 July 2021 (III ZR 179/20 and III ZR 192/20), the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court – BGH) decided that Facebook’s terms of business, governing the deletion of users’ posts and the blocking of accounts when its internal standards had been breached, were ineffective. This was especially the case if Facebook did not agree to inform users about the removal of their posts, at least in retrospect, and about the intention to block their accounts in advance, indicate the reason for doing so, and grant them the opportunity to respond and request a new decision....

On 7 May 2021, the European Commission delivered an important decision, finding that the Latvian National Electronic Mass Media Council’s 12-month suspension of the television channel Rossiya RTR in Latvia, due to incitement to violence or hatred, was compatible with the EU’s Audiovisual Media Service Directive (AVMDS). This follows a recent EU Court of Justice judgment on restricting transmissions of broadcasts from other EU member states on the basis of incitement to hatred (IRIS 2019-8/3), and earlier European Commission decisions on this issue (see IRIS 2018-7/7 and IRIS 2017-6/5)....

The 14 German Landesmedienanstalten (state media authorities) have jointly drafted new rules to implement the provisions of the new Medienstaatsvertrag (state media treaty – MStV). The boards of the individual media regulators are now gradually approving these rules, clearing the way for them to enter into force. The new rules are designed, among other things, to express in practical terms the MStV’s provisions on advertising.The principle being that minor broadcasting services (primarily Internet streams) do not require prior authorisation, and the MStV’s new provisions on media...

An independent media house in Malta is calling on the Constitutional Court to decree that a provision in the Broadcasting Act relating to impartiality is incongruent with the Constitution. LovinMalta, a news portal which has become very popular in Malta, particularly with the younger generation, is challenging a long-established practice that allows political parties to own broadcasting stations. This legal challenge could change the Maltese media landscape, which has for the last 30 years been dominated by the two main political parties, as they each own and operate a radio and television...

On 1 May 2021, the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) entered into force. On 31 January 2020, the United Kingdom left the European Union and entered a transition period while it negotiated its future relationship with the European Union. Almost a year later, on 24 December 2020, the European Commission and the United Kingdom reached a deal on the TCA, which defines the terms of their future cooperation. On 29 December 2020 the Council of the European Union adopted by written procedure the decision on the signing of the agreement and its provisional application, pending the consent of...