In a recent decision of December 19, 2021, case no. 1 BvR 1073/20 (published with an official press release dated February 2, 2022), the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht – BVerfG) set aside several judgments of the Berlin civil courts. The Berlin civil courts had denied the plaintiff, who alleges she was exposed to hate speech on a social network, the right to demand from the operator of the social network access to customer data, i.e., the full names of the users who had posted the content that the plaintiff considered to be hate speech. In the view of the BVerfG, the Berlin courts had failed to properly balance the parties’ interests and thereby had violated the plaintiff’s fundamental rights.
Continue Reading Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court provides guidance for assessing claims against hate speech on social media
Bundesverfassungsgericht
Highest German Court invalidates Section 113 of the German Telecommunications Act and abandons service providers’ obligation to grant authorities access to subscriber data
On May 27, 2020, the German Federal Constitutional Court invalidated section 113 of the German Telecommunications Act (TKG) and several accompanying federal law provisions for non-compliance with the German Constitution (case nos. 1 BvR 1873/13 and 1 BvR 2618/13). On July 17, 2020, the Federal Constitutional Court published the fully reasoned judgment as well as a press release outlining the Federal Constitutional Court’s key considerations (press release no. 61/2020 of July 17, 2020, available in German and English).
Background
Section 113 TKG enables German security authorities to request from providers of telecommunications services access to personal customer data linked to the conclusion or performance of a telecommunication services contract (Subscriber Data). Subscriber Data includes information such as a subscriber’s name, date of birth, telephone number, address, bank details, login data, or an IP-address assigned at a certain point of time. By contrast, data relating to the use of telecommunications services (so-called traffic data) is not covered by section 113 TKG.
Continue Reading Highest German Court invalidates Section 113 of the German Telecommunications Act and abandons service providers’ obligation to grant authorities access to subscriber data
German Federal Constitutional Court: Use of short “samples” in music titles does not qualify as infringement of exploitation rights of phonogram producers
On 31 May 2016, the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht – “BVerfG”) issued a judgment in favor of a Hip-Hop artist (“Artist”) who had used a 2-second-sample of Kraftwerk’s song “Metall auf Metall” (the “Judgment”). The BVerfG held that the use of samples for artistic purposes is protected by the artistic freedom and, at the…