Hard - and Software Bundle Not Unfair Practice

EuGH C-310 / 15

The European Court of Justice decided that the sale of computer with pre-installed software is not an unfair business practice. The promotion of computer and software bundles meets the expectation of a considerable part of consumers and is therefore not a professional negligence. In such cases consumer also do not expect a separate display of prices which is why the lack of separate display of prices can not be deemed misleading consumers.

Linking Can Be Illegal Display of Protected Work

EuGH C-160 / 15

The European Court of Justice decided that creating a link to works displayed on another website is in itself illegal public display of the works, if the link creator knew that the display on the other website violated IP rights but he still created the link to generate profit.

EU - US Privacy Shield Is Live

After the EU and the US agreed on the successor agreement to Safe Harbour, called the
EU - US Privacy Shield, US companies may as of August 1, 2016, self certify under the programme as a means of complying with EU data protection laws when transferring EU
personal data from the EU to the US.

EU Commission Finds Apple Tax Benefits in Ireland Illegal

On 30th of August the European Commission issued a statement about its decision that Ireland granted undue tax benefits of up to €13 billion to Apple. This is illegal under EU state aid rules, because it allowed Apple to pay substantially less tax than other businesses. Ireland must now recover the illegal aid from Apple. There are no fines under EU State aid rules and recovery does not penalise the company in question. It simply restores equal treatment with other companies.

EU Code of Conduct Against Illegal Online Hate Speech

EU-Commission, PM IP/16/1937 of 31/5/2016

The EU Commission together with Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and YouTube have published a Code of Conduct which contains a number of obligations to tackle illegal online hate speech in Europe. By signing this Code the aforementioned IT companies commit to a sustainable internal hate-speech policy which shall lead to a review and deletion of illegal online hate speeches within 24 hours as well as the closing down of illegally used accesses to those communication platforms.

Companies Fined For Not Replacing Safe Harbor

Hamburg Data Protection Agency


After the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that the Safe Harbor program is invalid, the European DPAs granted companies a transitory period until February to migrate from the Safe Harbor to other legal tools for their international data transfers, in particular by implementing Binding Corporate Rules (BCRs) or the Model Contractual Clauses.
The Hamburg Data Protection Agency (DPA), which effectively takes the lead in the German DPAs' response to Safe Harbour and the Privacy Shield, recently investigated 35 companies. It found significant shortcomings in that respect and has started to fine those for not having appropriate replacements for the Safe Harbor in place after the expiration of the permitted grace period.

EU Commission Publishes Legal Text Of EU-U.S. Privacy Shield

The European Commission made public a draft "adequacy decision" of the Commission as well as the texts that will constitute the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield after the Safe-Harbour treaty was found invalid by the European Court of Justice. This includes the Privacy Shield Principles companies have to abide by, as well as written commitments by the U.S. Government (to be published in the U.S. Federal Register) on the enforcement of the arrangement, including assurance on the safeguards and limitations concerning access to data by public authorities.

In a next step a committee composed of representatives of the Member States will be consulted and the EU Data Protection Authorities (Article 29 Working Party) will give their opinion, before a final decision by the College. In the meantime, the U.S. side will make the necessary preparations to put in place the new framework, monitoring mechanisms and the new Ombudsperson mechanism.