Database

In August 2011, the Landgericht court in Düsseldorf (Germany) granted Apple's request for an EU-wide preliminary injunction barring Samsung from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 device on the grounds Samsung's product infringed on two of Apple's interface patents. Later this ruling was overturned to a lesser injunction that only applied to the German market.

A Munich court ruled against Motorola Mobility because Motorola had used one of Apple’s patented photo management technologies on its mobile phones. Later in 2014, Motorola's most popular phones were banned because of infringed on a LPKF patent over an antenna technology Laser Direct Structuring.

The same investment regulations generally applicable to all providers of telecommunications services apply also to VoIP providers (e.g. regarding the provision of emergency calls, telecommunications surveillance, and interconnection obligations). This constitutes a barrier becaue usually telecom regulations are not extended to VoIP.

The 2009 Amendment to the German Foreign Trade and Payments Act establishes a review procedure administered by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Technology for foreign investments that threaten public policy or public security. Accordingly, the Federal Ministry may prohibit acquisitions or subject them to mitigation measures. Additional reviews may be performed for investments by non-EU/ non-EFTA investors that lead to a 25% or greater equity ownership. The procedure is not limited to specific industries. To date, the German government has not made use the amendment to impose any restrictions.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior (Bundesministerium des Innern – “BMI”) Procurement Office released a Decree on April 2014 for procurements by the BMI. The Decree appears to create discriminatory legal burdens on foreign bidding companies. It requires a bidder to include a self-declaration that the company has the ability to keep information that is considered confidential in a confidential manner. The decree introduces only vague terms to define what is considered to be confidential information.

Further, the Decree stipulates that in the event of non-compliance of the confidentiality clause of the self-declaration by the bidder, the procuring agency can terminate the contract. The Decree appears to allow exceptions to the confidentiality self-declaration for legal requirements to supply information to certain types of regulatory organizations (e.g. financial and tax regulatory authorities), but does not extend this exception to similar types of requests from foreign security agencies. As such, the Decree appears to be inconsistent with the national treatment and non-discrimination provisions within the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA).

The European Regulation No. 1042/2013 amending the Council Implementing Regulation No. 282/2011, declares that from January 2015, all supplies of telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services will be taxable at the place where the customer belongs. These include, inter alia:
- images or text, such as photos, screensavers, e-books and other digitised documents e.g. PDF files;
- music, films and games, including games of chance and gambling games, and of programmes on demand;
- online magazines website supply or web hosting services distance maintenance of programmes and equipment;
- supplies of software and software updates advertising space on a website.

Both EU and non-EU suppliers have to register for VAT purposes and comply with the relevant obligations of the Member State where the customer is established, has his/her permanent address or usually resides. This may be burdensome as there are 81 VAT rates across the 28 EU countries and the rates may vary between 3% (Luxembourg) to 27% (Hungary) across member states. Furthermore, member states impose varying thresholds at which companies must begin paying VAT, ranging from EUR 0 to EUR 60,000.

As an alternative to obtaining multiple VAT registrations in each Member State where a supplier has a customer, affected suppliers may be able to opt to account for VAT across the EU via a a web-portal in the Member State in which they are identified. Hence, the system, known as the Mini One-Stop Shop (MOSS) scheme, allows taxable persons to avoid registering in each Member State of consumption.

The EU Copyright Directive allows “fair compensation” for copyright owners. As a result, several Member States have imposed national levy systems.

In Germany, copyright levies are collected through levies on media and equipment. There is a legal obligation for importers to report types and numbers of imported media and equipment. Manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and retailers are legally bound to provide information upon request. The following rates apply:
- Audio-CD-R/RW: EUR 0.0614 per hour.
- DVD+/-R GB: EUR 0.139 per piece.
- DVD-RAM 9.4GB: EUR 1.264 per piece.
- USB-Stick ≤ 4 GB: EUR 0.91 per piece.
- USB-Stick > 4 GB: EUR 1.56 per piece.
- Memory card ≤ 4 GB: EUR 0.91 per piece.
- Memory card > 4 GB: EUR 1.95 per piece.

Furthermore, the following rates apply to devices:
- PC with CD/DVD-writer: EUR 17.0625 per piece.
- PC without CD/DVDVD-writer: EUR 15.1875 per piece.
- Multi-media HDD with recording function: EUR 34.00 per piece.
- Network HDD < 1TB: EUR 5.00 per piece.
- Network HDD ≥ 1TB: EUR 17.00 per piece.
- External CD/DVD-writer: EUR 7.00 per piece.
- VHS-recorder: EUR 15.00 per piece.
- DVD-Recorder: EUR 22.00 per piece.
- DVD+VCR+HDD-Recorder: EUR 49.00 per piece.
- CD-Recorder: EUR 13.00 per piece.
- MP3-Player: EUR 5.00 per piece.
- MP4-Player Display ≥ 3’’ ≤ 4’’: EUR 15.00 per piece.
- Mobile phones with touchscreen < 8 GB storage: EUR 16.00 per piece.
- Mobile phones with touchscreen ≥ 8 GB storage: EUR 36.00 per piece.

Uber was classified as an illegal taxi-service by French authorities in 2014. This resulted, in June 2015, in the arrest of two Uber executives. The French police has also fined UberPOP drivers and in July 2015 UberPoP suspended its service.

Online lotteries and casino games are prohibited. Online poker and betting sites need licenses.

Only EEA registered companies or individuals can apply for a .fr domain.

In the EU, the de minimis threshold for the exemption of goods from customs duties is harmonized and goods with a value of up to 131 SDR / 150 EUR / 198 USD are exempted from customs duties. The VAT de minimis threshold in the EU is not harmonized and can vary between 10 and 22 EUR. According to France's de minimis rule goods with a value of up to 19 SDR / 22 EUR / 29 USD are exempted from VAT.

France has not adopted UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce nor on e-Signatures.

Since 2011, sales of electronic books (e-books) by foreign merchants have been subject to a French law that sets a fixed price that French retailers may charge for a particular book. Under the law, anyone offering books for sale to buyers in France must apply the fixed price. This means that suppliers established outside of France (e.g. Amazon) are also bound to charge fixed prices.

The “Anti-Amazon Law” essentially forbids online booksellers from applying government-regulated discounts to the cover prices of books. They can mark down shipping, but they cannot offer it free. The law guarantees in practice that books sold in physical stores will be at least 5% cheaper than those sold online. As a result, Amazon started to charge EUR 0,01 per delivery.

The EU Directive on Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) covers traditional broadcasting services as well as audiovisual media services provided on-demand, including via the Internet. According to the AVMS Directive on-demand services are not subject to any explicit, strict content quota, but Article 13 imposes on Member States the obligation to ensure that on-demand service providers promote European works. The Directive has been implemented by Member States in different ways, ranging from very extensive and detailed measures to a mere reference to the general obligation to promote European works.

In France, Article 13 is implemented via three channels:
- Video on Demand (VOD) service providers should feature at least 60% of European works and 40% of French-speaking works (some of which may come from non-EU territories such as Canada).
- Financial contributions to the production or rights acquisition of European work are required. Since 2011, French subscription video-on-demand providers with a turnover exceeding 10 million euro must invest up to 26% of their annual revenues in European films and up to 22% of these revenues in French-speaking productions.
- The use of tools which give prominence to European works is required such as displaying a substantial proportion of European or French-speaking works on the home/front page. This should be achieved not only by mentioning the title, but also by showing visuals and trailers.