Jurisdiction Of French Courts Inward Matters Of Copyright Infringement On The Internet

                                                                            

A recent ruling yesteryear the Paris Court of Appeals highlights French courts' approach to jurisdiction inwards matters of copyright infringement on the internet.

At number was the unauthorized work of a musical operate inside the trailer of the Belgian version of the tv demo "The Voice" that was made available on the show's Facebook page.  The plaintiffs brought conform against the defendants (Belgian broadcaster RTBF La Une in addition to the production companionship Endemolshine Belgium) on grounds of copyright infringement earlier the Paris Tribunal de grande instance.

The defendants contended that the French courts lacked jurisdiction, argument that (i) both defendants had their caput offices inwards Belgium, (ii) the targeted world was alone Belgian in addition to (iii), that the work of the vocal on the Facebook page was purely accessory to the tv broadcast.  They likewise noted that the site was geo-blocked (to Belgium).

Affirming the lower court's decision, the Court of Appeals rejected this line of piece of work of reasoning in addition to held that the mere fact that site was accessible from French Republic was sufficient for jurisdictional purposes:

"It is established yesteryear bailiff's study dated 29 Feb 2016 that the trailer for the tv demo "The Voice" made available on the show's facebook page made fraudulent work of the the vocal "Badminton"; it is non disputed that this site was at that fourth dimension perfectly accessible inwards France; although RTBF has produced a baliff's study dated vii March 2017 showing that its meshwork site is geo-blocked, such study was drawn upward most 1 twelvemonth subsequently that produced yesteryear plaintiffs such that it is irrelevant alongside honour to the impugned facts."

It volition hold out recalled that the applicable legal principles inwards such matters are railroad train forth inwards Section vii (2) of European Union Regulation 1215/2012 of 12 Dec 2012under which:

"A somebody domiciled inwards a Member State may hold out sued inwards only about other Member State:

(2)	in matters relating to tort, delict or quasi-delict, inwards the courts for the house where the harmful resultant occurred or may occur;"

While this illustration raised the number of jurisdiction inwards an international (albeit inside the European Union) context, the approach of French courts to this number is identical inwards the domestic context.

The French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation) of late handed downwardly a determination on the footing of Section 46 of the French Code of Civil Procedure which mirrors the ruling yesteryear the Court of Appeals.  It held that accessibility inwards the territorial jurisdiction of the courtroom earlier which the affair is brought of an meshwork site disseminating advertising suffices to institute jurisdiction thereof, such jurisdiction beingness based on the house of materialization of the alleged harm, alongside honour to the alleged infringement of plaintiff's copyright.

Needless to say, this approach is highly favourable to plaintiffs (who request only demo accessibility of the impugned site inwards the chosen court's territorial jurisdiction) but is tempered to only about extent yesteryear principles limiting the territorial reach of such jurisdiction alongside honour to damages that may hold out claimed (as good as, potentially, yesteryear conflict of police clitoris rules).

Link to determination yesteryear Paris Court of Appeals here

Link to determination yesteryear Cour de cassation here