Brussels, 16/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - After several days without responding, the European Commission has now chosen to break its silence: it is denying that it intends to tax hyperlinks and contrary to what the MEP Julia Reda (Greens/EFA, Germany) asserted, a spokesperson responsible for the Commission's Digital Single Market, stated “taxing hyperlinks is an absurd idea. The European Commission does not intend to do this at all”.
In a ruling on 13 February 2014 (Svensson decision), the European Court of Justice indicated that a clickable link could not be subject to the principles of copyright because it did not represent an act of “communication to the public”. According to the Commission, the link does not exhibit the content to new public viewers because the pages can already be accessed elsewhere. Moreover, in a draft communication examined by EUROPE (see EUROPE 11428), the Commission explains that it is planning to “examine whether action is necessary regarding communication rights to the public and its availability”. According to Julia Reda MEP (Pirate Party), “this would make the search engines and news portals pay for the promotion of articles from media groups that are accessible for free… This would have disastrous effects”. Speaking at the European Parliament's Industry Committee (ITRE) on Monday 9 November, the Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Günther Oettinger, did not contradict this interpretation put forward by the German MEP.
It should be pointed out that on 9 December, the Commission will be publishing a general communication on copyright, a draft regulation on the portability of content, as well as a proposal on consumer protection in online contracts (B2B). The publication of the legislative proposal on the implementation of the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organisation's Marrakesh Treaty has been postponed until the beginning of 2016. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)