Has the CJEU quietly changed the conditions for safe harbour availability?
Kat on the beach Right before the summer break, on 7 August last, when most people had already turned their out-of-office auto-reply on or were getting ready to move to the beach, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued quite an interesting ruling - SNB-REACT , C-521/17 - concerning enforcement of IP rights under Article 4(c) of the Enforcement Directive and the availability and scope of the safe harbours under the E-Commerce Directive . Background This referral from Estonia was made in the context of proceedings that a collecting society, SNB-REACT, had initiated against an individual, Deepak Mehta, concerning the latter's alleged liability for infringement of the IP rights of 10 trade mark owners. According to SNB-REACT, Mehta had allegedly registered a number of IP addresses and internet domain names, which unlawfully used signs identical to the trade marks owned by SNB-REACT members, together with websites unlawfully offerin...