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A year on from the national implementation deadline of the Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market, the CJEU has upheld controversial Article 17.

By Deborah Kirk, Elva Cullen, Victoria Wan, and Amy Smyth

In September 2016, the European Commission announced its proposal on “the modernisation of copyright” designed to bring “clearer rules for all online players”. Six years later, in September 2022, and following a national transposition deadline of 7 June 2021, the EU Directive on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market 2019/790 (the Directive) is not yet fully implemented across all EU Member States.

The regulation is part of the EU Digital Single Market strategy to harmonise digital rights.

By Deborah J. Kirk, Elva Cullen, and Grace E. Erskine

From 12 July 2020, the EU’s Platform-to-Business Regulation 2019/1150 (P2B Regulation) promoting fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services applies. The P2B Regulation, which entered into force in June 2019, came about in response to complaints from SMEs regarding unfair practices and lack of transparency by online platforms, and the European Commission’s review of the same.

French Competition Authority orders Google to negotiate remuneration with press publishers and news agencies under Article 15 of the Copyright Directive (as implemented in France).

By Deborah Kirk, Elva Cullen, Rachael Astin, and Grace Erskine

Background

In April 2019 the European Parliament officially adopted Directive (EU) 2019/790 on Copyright and Related Rights in the Digital Single Market (the Copyright Directive) The directive seeks to harmonise copyright law at an EU level and introduces a package of measures relating to copyright in the digital age. The Copyright Directive also institutes a number of new exceptions to copyright infringement, allowing certain uses of copyrighted works without the permission of the copyright owner, including the exceptions for text and data mining and the exception for digital/cross-border teaching. These measures have been broadly welcomed, although some have proven more controversial. Articles 15 (the press publishers’ right) and 17 (concerning online content-sharing service providers), in particular, have been the subject of much debate.