March 2012

Austria: tricky copyright traps in hotel advertising

Submitted by Michael Wukoschitz on 28 March, 2012 - 16:01

The plaintiff, a painter, had made a sales exhibition of her paintings in the premises of the defendant hotel company. After the exhibition, the paintings (none of which had been sold) remained in the hotel for some time for a monthly fee to be paid by the defendant. During the exhibition, pictures of the hotel were taken which the defendant then used on its website. On one of these pictures, the plaintiff's painting "Mozart Symponie No 41" could be seen hanging on a wall in the background.

Summary available on the ECJ's hearing in pending cases seeking a revision of "Sturgeon"

Submitted by Michael Wukoschitz on 28 March, 2012 - 15:16

The joined cases Nelson v. Deutsche Lufthansa (C-581/10) and TUI et al v.

German court files reference for ECJ preliminary ruling regarding denied boarding

Submitted by Michael Wukoschitz on 28 March, 2012 - 12:45

The plaintiff booked a flight connection from Frankfurt (FRA) via Sao Paulo (CGH) to Santiago de Chile (SCL) for 3.3.2010. The defendant should have operated the flight FRA-CGH whereas the flight CGH-SCL was scheduled to be operated by a different carrier. On 27.2.2010 an earthquake caused severe damages at the SCL airport.

European Court of Justice: A hotel operator which broadcasts phonograms in its rooms must pay equitable remuneration to producer

Submitted by Michael Wukoschitz on 23 March, 2012 - 19:32

EU law requires the Member States to provide, in their legislation, a right to a single equitable remuneration for producers of phonograms published for commercial purposes, to be paid by the user of such phonograms for broadcasting or for any communication to the public. However, such equitable remuneration need not be paid in the case of ‘private use’.

ECJ Advocate General: no temporal or monetary limitation of the obligation to provide care to air passengers

Submitted by Michael Wukoschitz on 23 March, 2012 - 19:12

In his opinion in case C-12/11 - McDonagh v Ryanair, delivered on 22.03.2012, ECJ Advocate General Bot came to the conclusion that circumstances such as the closure of airspace owing to the eruption of a volcano constitute extraordinary circumstances for the purposes of Reg. 261/2004. Additionally, the EU legislation does not imply any limitation – temporal or monetary – of the obligation to provide care (accommodation, meals, refreshments) to the passengers.

European cruise industry sees strong growth ahead despite current challenges

Submitted by Michael Wukoschitz on 18 March, 2012 - 15:59

The international cruise industry, whose top priority is ensuring safety of passengers and crews and which is fully committed to learning lessons from the recent tragic Concordia incident, is confident that it will continue to see steady growth in Europe, said European Cruise Council Chairman Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio. Among Mr.

USA: DOT fines ticket agent and Qantas for advertising violations

Submitted by Michael Wukoschitz on 12 March, 2012 - 16:11

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) fined ticket agent Unister USA, also known as Flights24.com, USD 30,000 for violating the Department’s rules on fare advertising and disclosure of code-share flights.

German Supreme Court: domiciliary right allows hotel to ban extremist politician from its premises

Submitted by Michael Wukoschitz on 9 March, 2012 - 15:01

In the case of the former chairman of the extreme right wing German NPD ("Democratic Party of Germany"), Udo Voigt, whose wife had booked a private vacation at a wellness resort in Brandenburg but they were denied access by the hotel director on the reason that Voigt's extreme politcal views were detrimental to the image of the hotel and the other guests' desire for comfort and relaxation (see IFTTA news of 23 November, 2010), the German Supreme Court (BGH) has for the most part upheld the

Scotland: Lockerbie Update

Submitted by Michael Wukoschitz on 6 March, 2012 - 10:10

New revelations produced by BBC Scotland suggest that Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the Libyan jailed for life following the 1988 Lockerbie bombing may not be guilty after all. Part of the evidence against him was that he was in Malta, and was identified by a key witness there, at the time the bomb which destroyed Pan-Am Flight 103 was placed in a suitcase and loaded on to the aircraft. The Maltese shopkeeper, Tony Gauci, identified Megrahi as the man he sold clothes to and which were later found in a suitcase which had contained the bomb.

USA: DHS report says X-ray scanners at airports are safe

Submitted by Michael Wukoschitz on 2 March, 2012 - 14:52

The inspector general of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported that full-body X-ray scanning machines at airport security checkpoints use an "extremely low dose" of radiation which is safe for passengers. The report refers to a Johns Hopkins University assesment of 2010 which said that a passenger would have to be screened 47 times a day for a year to exceed yearly limits of radiation set by the American National Standards Institute.

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