Ms Julia Reda MdEP
Group of the Greens/European Free
Alliance
Rue Wiertz 05F158
B-1047 Brüssel
Brussels,
Dear Ms Reda,
Thank you for your e-mail of 18 July 2015 in which you seek further information
from
the
Commission
concerning
the
German
Presseverleger
Leistungsschutzrecht.
In your question E-005574/2015 first sub question you asked the Commission
what information (based on various sources) the Commission holds or is aware
of that relates to the applicability of Directive 98/34/EC to the German
Presseverleger-Leistungsschutzrecht. As I said in my reply, the Commission was
informed that Germany did not consider that the legislation in question falls
under Directive 98/34/EC and that Germany did not notify the law.
In your letter you now also enquire more specifically what exchanges took place
between the German authorities and the Commission on the subject matter of
notifiability of the German legislation. I can therefore inform you that the
Commission reminded the German authorities via e-mail in February 2013 of the
notification obligation under Directive 98/34/EC. In that mail the Commission
services explained that notification would be required if the revision of the
copyright legislation contained rules on information society services in the sense
of Directive 98/34/EC. The German authorities took the view that this was not the
case and adopted the legislation without notification. There was no follow up to
the reply submitted by the German authorities.
You also enquired (second sub question) what the Commission has done, is
doing and is intending to do to assess the applicability of Directive 98/34/EC to
the German law in question. I informed you that the Commission was not
undertaking specific actions to assess the formal notifiability under Directive
98/34/EC of the German legislation. As mentioned previously, national courts
can decide on the inapplicability of a national legislation containing technical
regulations if a Member State wrongly omitted to notify the national legislation
under directive 98/34/EC.
Finally, with your third sub question, you asked the Commission's assessment of
the law in question and its compliance with all applicable EU legislation. As for
the assessment in light of Directive 98/34/EC, I answered above. The
Commission has not carried out any specific assessment on the compatibility of
the German law with other applicable EU legal instruments. As indicated in my
reply to your written question, the Commission is monitoring the concrete
implementation of this law and its impact on the online market players. We are
aware of the debate around this measure and of the different positions and
concerns expressed by different categories of rightholders but for the moment we
have not reached any specific conclusions nor taken a position in this respect.
Yours sincerely
Elżbieta Bieńkowska
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