Jurisdiction(s):
European Union

EU competition law and copyright exploitation: Articles 101/102 TFEU, exhaustion, territorial restrictions, geo-blocking, collective management and dominance abuses

Published by a LexisNexis EU Law expert

Practice notes

What is copyright?

Copyright safeguards the author’s original expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves. It does not hand the copyright owner a monopoly. Consequently, works that are alike or even identical may lawfully coexist provided they are not unauthorised reproductions. In the EU and the UK, protection arises automatically and requires no registration.

In general, copyright protects original:

musical, dramatic, literary and artistic works (all of which must be fixed in some form)
sound recordings
films
typographical arrangements of published editions and broadcasts
databases (which may fall under a database right or copyright)
source code, user code and preparatory design material, and in some cases a user interface, logic, algorithms or programming languages

Exhaustion of rights and parallel trade within the EEA Existence v exercise

At the heart of the EU’s approach are rules securing the free movement of goods between Member States. Article 34 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union prohibits obstacles to cross-border trade in goods within the internal market. Article 36 TFEU permits a departure from Article 34 where such restrictions safeguard IP rights. However, this exception will...

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Pat Treacy

Bristows

Pat Treacy is a partner in the Competition team at Bristows LLP. Pat has specialised in EU law and competition law for almost 30 years and has been involved in landmark cases at EU and national level. In addition to her expertise across the range of competition law, she has particular strengths in advising on the complex legal and policy issues arising where competition law and intellectual property law intersect. Consequently, clients in high technology sectors including life sciences and TMT seek her advice regularly. Pat represents clients before the competition authorities and the courts, whilst also advising on competition law issues in complex agreements (including settlement, R&D and licensing agreements). Pat advises many of the Firm's clients on the competition law responsibilities affecting dominant companies. She and her team assist clients with competition compliance programmes and preparation for "dawn...

Francion Brooks

Bristows

Francion specialises in EU and UK competition law. She has experience of both contentious and non-contentious matters, particularly for clients in the technology, life sciences and consumer products sectors.Francion has acted in a number of FRAND disputes including for Samsung in the Unwired Planet litigation, and more recently in disputes for ZTE and Philips. She was also a member of the team that successfully defended Google in an abuse of dominance claim brought by Streetmap. Francion has also advised on the competition law aspects of a life sciences arbitration.Francion advises on issues arising from commercial arrangements including settlement, distribution and licensing agreements across all sectors. She also advises on competition law and GSCOP issues arising in the retail and FMCG sector, including in relation to the recent Tesco/Booker and Sainsbury’s/Asda mergers.Francion has spent time on secondment at Google and at the...

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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