Tuesday, March 29, 2011

EC writes to SIXTEEN member states regarding potentially faulty implementation

That's a lot of miscreants, see details here. The most important are:

Jurisdiction/country of origin principle: The country of origin principle is essential to give service providers legal certainty and to help them develop new cross border business models.
Jurisdiction for satellite broadcasts (Article 2) When a broadcaster based outside the EU uses a satellite up-link in an EU country, that EU country will have jurisdiction. When there is no up-link in the EU, the EU country whose satellite capacity is used has jurisdiction.
Countries can restrict broadcast of unsuitable content (Article 2) EU countries can restrict the retransmission of unsuitable on-demand audiovisual content that may not be banned in its country of origin when this is required by overriding general interest considerations such as the protection of minors.
Two-step safeguard for receiving countries (Article 4) If an EU Member State objects to the content in a television broadcast from another Member State, it can use a consultation procedure (cooperation procedure) to address the country of origin. The latter shall then issue a non-binding request for the broadcaster to comply with the stricter rules of the targeted country.
If the broadcaster circumvents these national rules, the objecting country can also - with the Commission's prior approval – take binding measures (circumvention procedure).
Member States cannot block broadcasts or on-demand services from other Member States without following these procedures.
Definition of audiovisual commercial communication (Article 1(1)(h)) The AVMS rules have a broad definition of what constitutes advertising, including sponsorship, product placement, teleshopping, etc. This is to ensure that all forms of commercial audiovisual content are covered by the same common set of rules, regardless of how they are used for the programmes. The AVMS rules define the conditions under which product placement is allowed. Member States are free to adopt stricter rules for media companies under their jurisdiction, provided that those rules comply with EU law.

2010/13/EC updates 2007/65/EC with Charter of Fundamental Rights

The official consolidated text is now available here.