Competent Court in Case of Copyright Infringement on the Internet

Which court should the author of a photograph turn to if it appears on a third-party website without his consent? The Court of Justice of the European Union (EuGH) has commented on this.

The plaintiff from Austria, a professional photographer for architecture, had noticed that one of her photographic works was made available without authorisation on the website of the defendant with a German top-level domain for retrieval and download. The plaintiff sued the defendant, which is domiciled in Germany, before the Commercial Court Vienna for damages.

The defendant objected that the Commercial Court Vienna was neither internationally nor locally competent, since the mere accessibility of her German website in Austria was insufficient to establish the jurisdiction of the Commercial Court Vienna.

The Commercial Court Vienna referred the question of jurisdiction to the Court of Justice of the European Union (EuGH) for a preliminary ruling,

The Court's Decision

The Court of Justice of the European Union (EuGH) decided in its judgment of 22.01.2015 – Az.: C-441/13, that the principle whereby proceedings must be brought before the courts of the EU member state in which the defendant is domiciled does not apply here. In a dispute concerning the infringement of copyright-related rights of protection, proceedings may in principle be brought before the court of another member state if that is the place where the harmful event occurred. This includes both the place of the event which gave rise to the damage and the place where the damage came about.

The conduct which gave rise to the damage would have pointed to Germany, where the management of the defendant had decided on the publication of the photographic work. However, the place where the damage came about was in Austria, where the photographs are accessible via the defendant's website. In this respect, it is immaterial that the website has a German top-level domain and is not directed at Austria. What is decisive is that the author's copyright is also protected in Austria.

However, the Commercial Court Vienna is competent only for the damage which occurred in Austria.

Conclusion

It is immaterial whether the website on which photographic works are illegally accessible is directed at the EU member state in which the court seised is located. If the author's copyright is protected in the member state of the court seised, that court is competent to hear the author's claim for damages.