Judgment of the CJEU in the case of Funke Medien

In Funke Medien NRW GmbH v. Bundesrepublik Deutschland (29.7.2019) a Grand Chamber of the CJEU applied Directive 2001/29/EC (on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society) to a set of facts concerning the publication by a newspaper of certain documents “classified for restricted access” drawn up by the German Government and relating to the operation of the German army in Afghanistan. In examining the scope of the exceptions for the benefit of the press and the information of the public, provided for in Article 5 of the directive, the CJEU stated the need for a fair balance to be struck between the protection of intellectual property (Article 17(2) of the Charter) and the freedom of expression and information (Article 11 of the Charter). In this connection, the CJEU referred, by virtue of Article 52(3) of the Charter, to the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights according to which, in balancing copyright against freedom of expression, due consideration was to be given to the nature of the expression or information at stake and in particular to the question whether it concerned matters of public interest. Given that the CJEU leaves it to the national courts to strike this balance which, at the end of the day, can be challenged by way of an application to the Strasbourg Court against the final domestic judgment, reliance by the CJEU on the Strasbourg case-law would appear to also serve the interests of domestic judges.