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Court of Justice of the EU ruled that free movement of goods can be restricted to protect copyrights

Submitted by veraliah on Fri, 22/06/2012 - 14:58

On 21 June 2012, the Court of Justice of the European Union gave a ruling on Case C-5/11, Criminal proceedings against Titus Alexander Jochen Donner. The facts of the case are, in a nutshell: At the relevant time, the sale of ‘Bauhaus’ style furniture was a copyright infringement in Germany, but not in Italy. The furniture was made in Italy and aimed at the German market. Donner, a German national who was the principal director and shareholder of a freight forwarding company based in Italy, was prosecuted for copyright infringement. He argued, inter alia, that he had not infringed any copyright since there was no 'distribution to the public' in terms of the Information Society Directive 2001/29/EC, and that Germany's criminalisation of the sale in Germany of products, which did not infringe copyright where they were made (in Italy), was an unjustified restriction on the free movement of goods.

The ruling reads, inter alia, as follows: "Articles 34 TFEU and 36 TFEU must be interpreted as meaning that they do not preclude a Member State from bringing a prosecution under national criminal law for the offence of aiding and abetting the prohibited distribution of copyright-protected works where such works are distributed to the public on the territory of that Member State in the context of a sale, aimed specifically at the public of that State, concluded in another Member State where those works are not protected by copyright or the protection conferred on them is not enforceable as against third parties".