Legal News

According to records held by the courts, a judicial review seeking to contest the €91m penalty for breaching the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, Regulation ( EU) 2016/679 ( EU GDPR), was lodged with the Irish High Court on 29 November 2024, via Meta’s legal representative in Ireland, the law firm A& L Goodbody. The claim is brought against the Irish DPC and also against Ireland’s Chief Legal Officer, the Attorney General. That positioning signals Meta may additionally point to shortcomings in Irish legislation, or argue that the state has failed to protect its rights within the proceedings. The court system does not specify the precise subject of the challenge, but MLex understands it relates to the fine and the reprimand issued in the......

Last month, the Irish Data Protection Commission ( DPC) affirmed a €310m penalty. The case stems from a 2018 complaint lodged by French non-profit organisation La Quadrature Du Net, first submitted to the French Data Protection Authority. Alongside the fine, the DPC issued a reprimand and directed Linked In to make its data processing compliant within three months. On 18 November 2024, Linked In initiated two distinct legal challenges before the Irish High Court there too......

Kwantum Nederland BV v Kwantum België BVVitra Collections AG, Case C-227/23 What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment carries tangible consequences, as it meaningfully reinforces protection for original works of applied art coming from non‑ EU member states within the framework of harmonised EU copyright law. By preventing Member States from invoking, in their national laws, the material reciprocity test (as set out in the Berne Convention), the Court of Justice further curtails national discretion to secure deeper harmonisation of EU copyright. Accordingly, the Court effectively unlocks for numerous creators based outside the Union the ability to advance claims under EU copyright, even where their works are only traded inside the EU yet stem from countries affording lesser protection, or none. The ruling stands as a precedent for applying international copyright norms within the EU. It may yield more uniform...

Commission urges IRELAND, SPAIN, FRANCE and HUNGARY to fully transpose the Renewable Energy Directive Press release below. Today, the European Commission decided to issue further reasoned opinions to Ireland INFR(2021)0260), Spain ( INFR(2021)0220), France ( INFR(2021)0238) and Hungary ( INFR(2021)0256) for not having fully transposed EU rules on promoting the use of energy from renewable sources, as set out in Directive ( EU) 2018/2001. This Directive provides the legal framework for the development of renewable energy across electricity, heating and cooling, and transport within the EU. It also sets a binding EU-wide target for 2030 on renewable energy and contains particular rules for......

The adaptability of general-purpose AI makes stringent AUPs essential to curb misuse. Without these rules, providers and users may unwittingly breach legal and ethical norms—particularly the EU AI Act—exposing themselves to substantial liabilities, regulatory duties and penalties. Defining AUPs Acceptable use policies are contractual terms that set out allowed and forbidden uses of technology. In the realm of foundation models, they delineate what users may and may not do with AI systems, aiming to prevent harmful or unlawful applications. By baking these limits into terms of service or model licences, developers impose binding obligations on users, thereby extending their control over how their technologies are used. The necessity of AUPs for AI systems The value of AUPs is highlighted by findings from Stanford University’s Centre for Research on Foundation Models. Research by Kevin Klyman observes that foundation model developers are increasingly proactive in adopting AUPs to prevent...

The European Commission stated that Facebook’s owner exploited its power in social media to push Marketplace adverts on users, unlawfully linking the two products in breach of EU competition rules. The Commission said Facebook’s parent company had abused its dominance by doing so. The regulator further alleged the tech giant set unfair terms for other classified advertising firms wishing to market their services on Facebook, granting the company access to data from those rivals’ adverts to strengthen its own Marketplace proposition. Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice- President of the Commission, said the practice breaches EU antitrust law and that Meta must now cease this behaviour. According to the Commission, Meta coupled its online classified adverts service, Facebook Marketplace, with its personal social network, Facebook, while imposing inequitable trading conditions on competing online classified ads providers......

After a series of high-profile probes, several US technology firms have halted the training of generative AI systems across the 27 EU Member States in 2024 throughout the bloc. Supervisory authorities fear such training may breach the EU GDPR, as generative AI can ingest immense volumes of personal data without users’ consent or an appropriate legal basis. Building these models depends on sweeping up data from the public internet, spanning personal, non-personal and mixed datasets, much of it scraped from publicly accessible sources, including social media platforms, often at scale. This approach has triggered knotty debates about how data protection rules should be interpreted and enforced. How can AI providers develop generative models while fully honouring GDPR principles such as lawfulness, transparency and fairness, purpose limitation, data minimisation, storage limitation, accuracy, security and accountability? Authors and creators also face the pressing concern of whether these...

On 7 October 2024, following a public consultation, the EDPB adopted the final version of ‘ Guidelines 2/2023 on the technical scope of Article 5(3) of the e Privacy Directive’—often referred to as the ‘cookie rule’ (the Guidelines). The authors previously reviewed the first draft in December 2023 (see News Analysis: EU— New EDPB guidelines on the scope of the ‘cookie rule’). Only limited differences separate that draft from the endorsed text. The EDPB still pursues an extremely expansive interpretation of the cookie rule, with most amendments simply providing clarification. This piece outlines the substance of the Guidelines and offers brief observations on their practical implications. Background It has long been accepted that conventional internet cookies engage the cookie rule. With newer tracking approaches—such as pixels, URL tracking and Java Script code—emerging, the EDPB sought to dispel potential ambiguities. The Guidelines...

The watchdog’s decision According to the regulator, the major social network’s handling of information breached multiple provisions and infringed several articles of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, Regulation ( EU) 2016/679 ( EU GDPR). The ruling stems from a 2018 complaint lodged by the French non-profit organisation La Quadrature Du Net, and was initially submitted to the French Data Protection Authority ( CNIL). At that time, the group brought several complaints concerning Big Tech companies during the first week of the EU GDPR’s operation. Lawfulness of processing is central to data protection law, and processing personal data without an appropriate legal basis is a clear and serious breach of data subjects’ fundamental right to data protection, said the DPC’s deputy commissioner, Graham Doyle......

On 11 October 2024, the Opposition Division of the EU Intellectual Property Office ( EUIPO) concluded that buyers are likely to confuse Sky Ltd’s trade mark with the sign of Shenzhen Qingchuan Technology Co Ltd, as they may view it as a continuation of the British media and telecommunications group’s brand. In its decision, the office noted that consumers may see the contested sign as an extension or continuation, or as a new brand line of goods, offered under the opponent’s ' Sky' mark, given that it will cover goods identical to those sold under the earlier trade mark. It is common practice......

Reynders has said that online platforms face oversight under the EU’s digital framework and the customs union reforms, to make sure goods coming into the bloc comply with its safety requirements. He added that the EU Digital Services Act, Regulation ( EU) 2023/988 (the EU General Product Safety Regulations), and the customs union overhaul are vital to shield the EU from unfair competition by online marketplaces. ‘ Safeguarding consumers and ensuring marketplace compliance will continue as a core enforcement focus,’ Reynders stated on 21 October 2024 during a formal debate in the European Parliament’s plenary session. ‘ We take this duty seriously and will not hesitate to act decisively.’ The outgoing Commissioner explicitly named Chinese platforms Temu, Shein and Alibaba, as well as US-based Amazon, as among the companies that will need to......

Lindenapotheke , Case C-21/23 Background Both the claimant and the defendant in the principal proceedings operate pharmacies. The defendant additionally possesses a mail-order licence and promotes its product range, including medicines restricted to pharmacy supply, on the Amazon Marketplace platform, which permits sellers to offer goods straight to consumers. The claimant applied for an injunction to stop the defendant from distributing pharmacy-only pharmaceuticals through that online marketplace. In the claimant’s view, this mode of sale constitutes an unfair commercial practice, as it breaches a statutory provision within the meaning of Section 3a of the German Act Against Unfair Competition ( Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb, or UWG). The District Court upheld the action. The Higher Regional Court dismissed the defendant’s appeal, holding that selling pharmacy-only medicines via Amazon Marketplace contravenes the UWG because this method of distribution entails processing health data within the scope of Article 9(1) of the EU...

Law360: The Irish government plans to channel the €14.1bn in corporate taxes owed by Apple Inc, arising from an ECJ decision that Ireland offered unlawful state aid, into infrastructure, officials said on Tuesday while unveiling next year’s budget. The 10 September ECJ judgment created a substantial back‑tax bill, according to the minister for public expenditure, Paschal Donohoe, in remarks to lawmakers. Finance minister Jack Chambers told the parliament that €3bn will be released immediately for infrastructure schemes as the government starts a consultation on deploying the remainder, naming housing, energy, water and transport as chief priorities. ‘ The recent judgment from the Court of Justice of the European Union has delivered a one‑off revenue stream with the potential to be transformative,’ Chambers said. ‘ It is essential that this income is not used for routine spending or to narrow the tax base.’ The ruling...

The complaint centers on what Google says are unfair and illegal licensing terms in its contracts for Azure. Google claims Microsoft’s Azure deals contain unjust and unlawful licensing conditions. The company says that in 2019 Microsoft moved from letting customers transfer their Windows Server licences to any cloud provider to imposing hefty fees when the choice wasn’t Azure. Now, Google argues, migrating licences to Azure costs next to nothing, but moving to a competing cloud can trigger a 400 per cent mark-up to purchase new Windows Server licences. Moreover, even when customers accept the expense of choosing a rival, Google says Microsoft then restricts security updates and other improvements that Azure users are not denied. They maintain that Microsoft is the only cloud operator employing these tactics, which have seriously harmed European businesses and governments, Google Cloud executives Amit Zavery and Tara Brady wrote in a blog...

Europe’s high court ruled that the clauses do not amount to ‘ancillary restraints’ exempt from competition rules, as Booking.com could still run its online travel business without them, and thus also cannot claim any shelter under that exception. The court explained there is no inherent link between the survival of the hotel reservation platform’s core activity and imposing such clauses, which plainly create appreciable restrictive effects in the market. It added that, besides tending to lessen competition among different hotel reservation platforms, the clauses threaten to drive out smaller platforms and fresh market entrants over time in practice. The ruling responds to a request from a Netherlands court on how to assess Booking.com’s liability for the pricing clauses in connection with private litigation initiated subsequent to a German government enforcement action......

In a statement, the General Court explained it reached this outcome despite endorsing most of the European Commission’s findings, as the Commission had failed to consider all of the pertinent circumstances in its assessment of the length and duration of the contractual clauses it had deemed abusive. The Court additionally concluded that the Commission made mistakes in defining the market covered by the 2016 clauses in agreements with Google’s online advertising brokering service, Ad Sense for Search. In its summary of the decision, it observed that the Commission had not shown that the three identified clauses each amounted to an abuse of a dominant position, or that together they formed a single, continuous infringement. Consequently, the Court found the Commission had not proved that the clauses in those contracts stifled innovation......

The report observes that the main factor behind the widening productivity gulf between the EU and the US — which began in the mid‑1990s — is Europe’s missed chance to harness the first internet‑led digital revolution, both by founding new tech companies and by diffusing digital technologies throughout the broader economy. Spotlight on digital technologies Draghi’s analysis notes that, stripping out the tech industry, EU productivity over the last twenty years is broadly on a par with the US. However, Europe trails in the breakthrough technologies set to underpin future growth. Since 2017, about 70% of foundational AI models have originated in the US, and just three American hyperscalers capture more than 65% of the global as well as the European cloud markets, the report states. In practice, the EU cloud services market has largely slipped to US-based providers. Quantum computing is flagged as the next major wave of...

The court has thrown out Google’s challenge to a 2017 European Commission penalty in the case alleging it leveraged its power as a general search engine to elevate its own comparison service, Google Shopping, above competitors. In its appeal, Google contended the lower court erred in holding it owed rivals access to search results and in failing to pinpoint behaviour exceeding competition on the merits. The Court of Justice, however, reached the opposite view. According to the European Court of Justice, the General Court properly found that, given the market’s features and the case’s particular context, Google’s practices were discriminatory and lay outside competition on the merits. Officials say Google positions Google Shopping listings at or near the top of search pages while pushing competing services down. The dispute centres on allegations that the company privileged its in‑house service and...

From 1 September 2024, all European patents enjoying unitary effect will extend automatically to the eastern European country, according to the European Patent Office. Romania will likewise become part of the Unified Patent Court, so the unitary patent regime (often billed as a one-stop shop for patents) will span close to 350 million EU residents. ‘ Romania’s accession plainly highlights how pertinent the unitary patent system is for EU member states seeking to engage in the internal technology market and deepen European economic integration,’ said António Campinos, president of the European Patent Office. Under the arrangement the EPO announced in June, Romania will enter a framework that has seen ‘strong demand’ since it took effect in June 2023, the agency noted. Nearly one in four European patents issued in 2024 have been converted into a unitary patent, the agency added, according to the...

The rise and circulation of pornographic deepfakes, the distribution of intimate images without consent, and online sexual harassment fall most heavily on women and other marginalised communities in particular, affecting both high-profile figures such as Taylor Swift and everyday social media participants. With such conduct proliferating, the EU has signalled its resolve to curb it on digital platforms—no simple or straightforward undertaking, yet one the 27-member bloc is intent on addressing through the EU DSA. Yet the EU DSA stops short of listing particular categories of unlawful content. Accordingly, dovetailing the EU DSA with sector-specific and domestic rules is vital to counter the expanding array of illegal material online—among them the newly adopted Directive ( EU) 2024/1385 on combating violence against women and domestic violence (see: LNB News 28/05/2024 21). In force since 16 November 2022, the EU DSA targets illegal content and...