German court refers Google copyright case to CJEU
A court in Berlin has referred a dispute between German publishers and search engine Google to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
A collecting society, on behalf of publishers, had brought an action against Google, claiming that the search engine should pay the publishers because it displays parts of their newspaper articles online.
On Monday, May 8, the court handed down its decision, and instead of ruling in favour of one of the parties, it questioned the validity of the law governing press and copyright that it was asked to enforce.
The CJEU will now look into whether the German government should have presented its draft law to the European Commission before it came into effect in August 2013.
Notifications are required when EU member states pass laws that may create barriers to the free movement of goods or to the free provision of the internet.
The collecting society, VG Media, is relying on the law—Germany’s ancillary copyright for press publishers.
Under the law, search engines and news aggregators have to pay remuneration to press publishers for the use of digital press products, according to the collecting society.
VG Media welcomed the decision, stating that the court had found its suit against Google “partially justified”.
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