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On 25 February 2019, the Constitutional Court of Spain ruled out, in a judgement, the use of hidden cameras for journalistic purposes. The Constitutional Court ruled that “the Constitution does not permit the use of hidden cameras for journalistic purposes as it constitutes a serious illegitimate interference with the fundamental rights to privacy and to one’s own image”. The judgement of the First Chamber partially upheld the appeal for constitutional protection brought by an individual who considered that journalists of a television channel had violated his rights to privacy, own image and honour...

On 21 March 2019, despite criticism from media associations and the opposition, the German Bundestag adopted a draft act tabled by the federal government to implement Directive (EU) 2016/943 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure, as contained in a recommended resolution drawn up by the Bundestag Law and Consumer Protection Committee.  Directive 2016/943 obliges member states to protect trade secrets through civil law provisions. According to the act’s explanatory memorandum, trade secrets have considerable...

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has delivered a new judgment with regard to the liability of an Internet portal for offensive content allegedly tarnishing one’s reputation (see also Delfi v. Estonia (Grand Chamber), IRIS 2015-7/1; Magyar Tartalomszolgáltatók Egyesülete and Index.hu Zrt v. Hungary, Iris 2016-3/2 and Pihl v. Sweden, Iris 2017-5/3). The ECtHR agreed with the findings by the Norwegian courts that although some anonymous comments were inappropriate and tasteless, the expeditious removal of the offensive comments upon actual knowledge by the media company and the editor exempted...

In a judgment of 8 February 2019, the Midden-Nederland District Court dismissed an action brought by a Dutch movie distributor seeking to obtain Internet users’ contact data held by a Dutch Internet service provider (ISP). The movie distributor requested data that would enable it to identify Internet users who illegally downloaded a certain movie.   Between 21 December 2017 and 2 Februar 2018, the movie distributor was permitted by the Dutch data protection authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens) to collect the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of Internet users who illegally downloaded the movie...

On 18 February 2019, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee published its Final Report on disinformation and fake news (“the Report”), following on from its July 2018 Interim Report. Since then, the Committee has held three further evidence sessions, inviting UK regulators and the Government to give evidence, as well as receiving a further 23 written submissions. In November 2018 the Committee hosted an “International Grand Committee”, inviting parliamentarians from nine countries. The Report develops the areas covered in the Interim Report,...