The Court of Jus­ti­ce of the Euro­pean Uni­on (CJEU) ruled today that the Ger­man Govern­ment was obli­ged to noti­fy the 2013 Ger­man Press Publisher ́s Right accor­ding to the Infor­ma­ti­on Directive(case num­berC-299/17). Befo­re refer­ring the case to the CJEU the Regio­nal Court of Ber­lin had alre­a­dy sta­ted that the action of VG Media against Goog­le was „at least part­ly well foun­ded“. The decis­i­on con­trasts stark­ly with the state­ments of the Euro­pean Com­mis­si­on, seve­ral mem­ber sta­tes as well as the Ger­man govern­ment, accor­ding to which a noti­fi­ca­ti­on was not requi­red.

Mar­kus Run­de, CEO VG Media: „The decis­i­on only con­cerns the past and does not con­tain any state­ments in regard to the influence of the DSM Direc­ti­ve of April 2019 on the refer­red ques­ti­ons to the CJEU. The­r­e­fo­re, the decis­i­on only covers the peri­od bet­ween the year 2013 and 17 April 2019. The impact of the decis­i­on on the pen­dent pro­cee­dings will have to be asses­sed. Fur­ther­mo­re, the decis­i­on does not influence the new­ly pas­sed Euro­pean Press Publisher ́s Right of the DSM Direc­ti­ve (Art. 15). The decis­i­on is tech­ni­cal and dif­fi­cult to grasp. This is aggrava­ted by the fact that the cir­cum­s­tances have chan­ged com­ple­te­ly sin­ce the case was refer­red to the CJEU. During this peri­od the Euro­pean law­ma­kers pas­sed a uni­on-wide Press Publisher ́s Right that will have to be appli­ed in all mem­ber sta­tes. This new Euro­pean Press Publisher ́s Right favours the Press Publishers by con­fer­ring wider and robust rights than the 2013 Ger­man law. The fail­ure to noti­fy the old law is alre­a­dy old news. We look for­ward to enfor­cing the new rights. The Press Publishers soli­cit an imme­dia­te har­mo­ni­sa­ti­on of the Euro­pean Press Publisher ́s Right in Ger­ma­ny as this is the only way to gua­ran­tee a free and demo­cra­tic press. Goog­le and other plat­form busi­nesses should remu­ne­ra­te the Press Publishers for the use of their con­tent. If the plat­form busi­nesses con­ti­nue to igno­re the remu­ne­ra­ti­on obli­ga­ti­ons, which should take into con­side­ra­ti­on the tur­no­ver of the plat­forms, the Ger­man Press Publishers will be forced to initia­te court pro­cee­dings once again.“

Back­ground infor­ma­ti­on: The Ger­man par­lia­ment pas­sed the natio­nal Press Publisher ́s Right in the year 2013. Accor­ding to the sta­tu­tes in ques­ti­on, search engi­ne ope­ra­tors and aggre­ga­tors of press pro­ducts are obli­ged to pay a fair remu­ne­ra­ti­on for the use of digi­tal press pro­ducts. The pro­cee­dings at the Regio­nal Court of Ber­lin con­cern the legal enforce­ment of the Ger­man Press Publisher ́s Right against Goog­le LLC, Moun­tain View, Cali­for­nia. The pro­cee­dings beca­me neces­sa­ry as Goog­le in prin­ci­ple oppo­sed the obli­ga­ti­on to pay a fair remu­ne­ra­ti­on for using digi­tal press pro­ducts. In the case that Goog­le now again refu­ses to con­clude a licen­se agree­ment with VG Media, the Regio­nal Court of Ber­lin would have to deci­de on claims of VG Media con­cer­ning the dis­clo­sure of tur­no­ver and dama­ges. Befo­re refer­ring the case to the CJEU the Regio­nal Court of Ber­lin had alre­a­dy sta­ted that the action of VG Media against Goog­le was „at least part­ly well foun­ded“. Should pro­cee­dings con­ti­nue in front of the Regio­nal Court of Ber­lin Goog­le would be orde­red to pay dama­ges and to dis­c­lo­se its tur­no­ver in Ger­ma­ny to the public for the first time. Other pro­cee­dings against Goog­le as for ins­tance a com­plaint of seve­ral Ger­man Press Publishers with the DG Comp of the Euro­pean Com­mis­si­on con­cer­ning the abu­se of power will con­ti­nue none­thel­ess.

The Ger­man Press Publisher ́s Right is a role model for the Euro­pean Press Publisher ́s Right included in the DSM Direc­ti­ve pas­sed April this year. Mem­ber Sta­tes are obli­ged to har­mo­ni­se the Euro­pean law into natio­nal legis­la­ti­on within the next 21 months.

VG Media is a Ger­man coll­ec­ti­ve manage­ment orga­ni­sa­ti­on and mana­ges copy­rights and neigh­bou­ring rights for almost all pri­va­te natio­nal broad­cas­ters and for 200 Press Publishers.