Court of Justice 20 October 2022, C-423/21 (Opinion of Advocate General Szpunar delivered on 20 October 2022.)

Also known as

In this Opinion, Advocate General Szpunar addresses three questions referred by the Oberster Gerichtshof (Supreme Court, Austria) concerning the liability of a streaming platform operator and related entities under Article 3(1) of Directive 2001/29/EC, and the jurisdictional scope of Member State courts under Article 7(2) of Regulation No 1215/2012. The AG opines that a streaming platform operator does not infringe the exclusive right of communication to the public where users independently bypass geoblocking via VPN services, but does infringe that right where protected works are made available without restriction in EU territory without the rightholder's consent; entities related to the operator that merely advertise, contract with customers, or provide support, without any influence over content or access restrictions, do not themselves make a communication to the public within the meaning of that provision. The AG further proposes that the third question, concerning the territorial scope of Austrian courts' jurisdiction, be declared inadmissible on the grounds that Article 7(2) of Regulation No 1215/2012 is inapplicable to the defendants in the main proceedings, as the non-EU-domiciled defendant falls under Article 6(1) of that Regulation and the Austrian-domiciled defendants are subject to the general jurisdiction rule under Article 4(1).AI