On Thursday 19 May, the European Commission decided to refer five Member States - Spain, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Slovakia - to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failure to transpose the revised Audiovisual Media Services Directive (2018/1808), with a request to impose financial sanctions.
The revised AVMS Directive sets out EU-wide media content standards for all audiovisual media, from traditional television broadcasts to on-demand services and video sharing platforms (see EUROPE 12011/6). These rules strengthen the protection of viewers, in particular the most vulnerable people such as minors, extend the rules on illegal and harmful content to video-sharing platforms and promote cultural diversity in the audiovisual media (quota of 30% European works in the catalogues of video-on-demand services) (see EUROPE 12519/4).
Member States had to transpose the Directive and communicate their national transposition measures no later than September 2020. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)