The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) yesterday handed a victory to Google, after it ruled that a German law allowing publishers to demand royalties for the use excerpts of their content is unenforceable.
In the judgment, handed down yesterday, September 12, the CJEU found that Germany failed to notify the European Commission of the new law after it was passed in 2013—breaching the Commission’s rules and rendering the new law unenforceable.
The case made its way to the CJEU after VG Media, a group of German publishers, sued Google for displaying news snippets without paying a royalty.
VG claimed that Google had violated the laws and demanded damages for the unauthorised use of its members’ content.
Google successfully argued that the press publishing law was unenforceable as the government failed to notify the Commission of the technical regulation at the time.
The decision is line with the opinion issued by advocate general Gerard Hogan last December.
The CJEU referred the case back to the Berlin court for a determination on costs.
Source: Wipr
