Unlawful Acts within Information and Communication Law and the Breach of Law Principle in Unfair Competition Law
Market participants violate existing rules governing the media sector in order secure a competitive advantage. In his dissertation, Martin Lose examines judicial subjects that interface the breach of law according to § 3a UWG (Act Against Unfair Practices) and the information and communication law.
The competition courts (at the courts) deal with facts of cases on a daily basis for which they have to determine whether a market participant gained – consciously or unconsciously – illegitimate advantage under competition law by committing a breach of the law. This also includes facts of cases that show a significant breach of law in information and communication law. The dissertation covers the interface of existing judicial subjects and, thereby, focuses particularly on the Interstate Treaty on Broadcasting and Telemedia, the Telemedia Act as well as the Data Privacy Law.
Elements of the breach of law have always been part of applied legal provisions of the unfair competition law. The competition courts (at the courts) deal with facts of cases on a daily basis for which they have to determine whether a market participant gained – consciously or unconsciously – illegitimate advantage under competition law by committing a breach of the law. This also includes facts of cases that show a significant breach of law in information and communication law.
The most prominent examples of the past years for such a proceeding is the legal dispute concerning the design of the app of the news programme “Tagesschau” and, hence, the programming responsibilities of public service broadcasting beyond the broadcasting/dissemination/distribution of radio and television programmes that went through all appeal stages up to the Bundesgerichtshof [Federal Court of Justice]. Competing platform operators argue over the compliance with regulation of data and consumer protection.
This PhD project examines the judicial subjects emerging at this interface. This includes the possible binding effects of legal decisions unknown to the course of law and possible regulatory permits, aspects of communication under constitutional law when interpreting the unfair competition law along with the relation between the breach of law and the European legislation that pervade not only the unfair competition law but also many aspects of the information and communication law. Thereby, the project focuses on the Interstate Treaty on Broadcasting and Telemedia, the Interstate Treaty on the Protection of Minors, the Telemedia Act as well as the Data Privacy Law in particular.
