The European Commission (EC) Recommendation of 1.3.2018 on measures to effectively tackle illegal content online (C(2018) 1177 final) is now freely accessible. As readers know, this is not the first time the EC has attempted to express meaningful thoughts (for lack of a better word, as once again the instrument is not strictly speaking … Continue reading
Boosting the EU Digital Single Market is not an easy task. Full of energy, the European Commission (EC) disclosed its strategy one year ago in the Communication on Online Platforms and the Digital Single Market, in which it announced that “in the next copyright package, to be adopted in the autumn of 2016, the Commission … Continue reading
In its own way, the pan-EU Article 29 Data Protection Working Party (Art. 29 WP) has been very active in the past few months. One of the most awaited piece of advice released by Art. 29 WP this month covers automated individual decision-making and profiling for the purposes of Regulation 2016/679 (Opinion WP 251). Why … Continue reading
Among the policy objectives to pursue in order to ensure the flourishing of the Digital Single Market, one finds here: “Updating EU audiovisual rules and working with platforms to create a fairer environment for everyone, promote European films, protect children and tackle hate speech.” Clicking on ‘platforms,’ one can also read: “Online platforms are an important part of … Continue reading
Intermediary liability has been up until now a never-ending story. For the past two years, we have been regularly fed with communications, codes of conduct, legislative proposals, as well as soft but loud encouragements, from national governments targeting online platforms and asking them to do much more to tackle illegal content such as child sexual … Continue reading
The proposal to extend the Audiovisiual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) continues along its legislative path. We are now entering the trilogue negotiations phase, and, after having read the unrelated [at least at first glance] G7 Taormina Statement on the fight against terrorism and violent extremism, I am re-reading the text of the Proposal for a … Continue reading
Advocate General Szpunar (AG) delivered yesterday his opinion in the highly political and much awaited case C‑434/15 Asociación Profesional Elite Taxi v Uber Systems Spain SL. In a nutshell, the AG was asked to answer four questions concerning two important milestones of the European Union (EU) acquis: the E-commerce Directive of 2000 and the services … Continue reading
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its awaited judgment on 4 May in the case Valsts policijas Rīgas reģiona pārvaldes Kārtības policijas pārvalde v Rīgas pašvaldības SIA ‘Rīgas satiksme’, answering two related questions: ‘(1) Must the phrase ‘is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the … third party … Continue reading
While the scope of intermediary liability exemptions is being discussed in several places around Europe (and beyond), it is interesting to go back to the Overblog legal saga, which a few years ago had been described by some as pre-announcing other popular sagas, such as the infamous Google Spain case (discussed in a previous post … Continue reading
A lot has been written on the topic of intermediary liability in the past few months. But has everything been said or read? And looking at the different pieces of the regulatory jigsaw together, are we heading in the right direction? One important piece of the jigsaw is certainly the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) … Continue reading