The 2012 edition of the two main international rankings for lawyers have been released, Legal 500 and Chambers. Here are the comments about the media team of Kennedy Van der Laan.

Legal 500 in the category ‘media and entertainment’ on Kennedy Van der Laan: 
‘A very accessible firm, which is informal but has very experienced lawyers’, Kennedy Van der Laan is noted for its freedom of press work. Jens van den Brink is ‘an outstanding lawyer in the field of media law and defamation; very experienced and up to date’. Machteld Robichon-Lindenkamp provides ‘know-how in media cases and special …read more

On 7 February 2012 the European Court of Human Rights (”ECtHR”) rendered a judgment not only in the Caroline van Hannover II judgment, but also in the case of Axel Springer vs. Germany. This case resembles that of the Princess of Monaco.

The Axel Springer case is about the publication of two articles about a well-known German television actor in the daily newspaper Bild, of which the Axel Springer group is the publisher. The first article alleged that the actor – who thanks his fame mostly to his role as a policeman – had been arrested for possession and use of …read more

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rendered its judgment on 7 February 2012 in the Princess Caroline of Monaco II case. Just like the case that led to the first Princess Caroline judgment of 2004, this affair was also about the balance between her privacy and the freedom of the press. In the Caroline II judgment the Caroline I judgment is further elaborated on. The judges came to an unanimous ruling …read more

BBC News had an item today about the release of Willem Holleeder. The BBC report also mentions the film “the Heineken Kidnapping” and comments on the lawsuit conducted by Willem Holleeder against the film’s producer IDTV. On that matter I have been briefly interviewed as IDTV’s attorney. Please …read more

On December 1, 2011 the Amsterdam Court rendered its judgment in the second summary proceedings about the Dutch movie ‘De Heineken Ontvoering’ (The Heineken Kidnapping), starring Rutger Hauer. These proceedings were instituted against producer IDTV by two men who were involved in the kidnapping of the beer mogul, Frans Meijer and Jan Boellaard. We reported in the October 2011 newsletter on the first summary proceedings, which were instituted by Willem Holleeder (also one of the kidnappers) against the producer. In that …read more

Could Dutch newspaper Spits call the former Member of Parliament for the PVV James Sharpe ‘porn baron’ and ‘king of online porn’? That question was the reason for the preliminary relief proceedings which Sharpe initiated in 2011 against Spits. In two articles Spits jokingly used the above-mentioned terms, with which it referred to an affair around …read more

This week the Dutch Senate approved the new act that establishes the Dutch Games of Chance Authority (’Kansspelautoriteit’). The Authority shall take over the responsibilities of the previous regulator (’College van Toezicht op Kansspelen’) and shall receive a full array of restrictive measures. The Authority shall start on 1 April 2012 and shall be based in The Hague. An important task will be the issuing of new licenses for games of chance. State Secretary Teeven acknowledged …read more

By Joris van Hoboken

The European Commission draft proposal for a data protection regulation contains the so-called right to be forgotten in Article 15. This is not a surprise but the way it has been drafted is quite terrible as I will try to explain below.

Commissioner Viviane Reding made a right to be forgotten into one of the central themes of the privacy directive’s review of the last two years and her plans to modernize the existing legal framework for the processing of personal data in the EU. While there are some valuable improvements to the existing data protection rules in the EC’s concept proposal, this right to be forgotten is amongst the worst legal inventions …read more

On Oct. 28, 2011, the Court of First Instance in Amsterdam delivered its full judgment in the case of Willem Holleeder v. IDTV (verdict here, in Dutch). The judgment contains important guidelines for makers of historical movies (or other works of art) that mix fact and fiction. The court also confirms the principles laid down in the recent ECHR Mosley ruling.

The facts
In 1983, Dutch beer tycoon Freddy Heineken and his chauffeur Doderer were kidnapped by a group of five men, among whom the claimant in this case, Willem Holleeder. After having been locked for three weeks in two damp cells, without heating and chained to the wall, Heineken and Doderer were freed by the police. The kidnappers escaped with EURO 13.6 million ransom money, but were eventually …read more

Several stakeholders representing the online advertising, publishing and e-commerce industry have requested the Dutch Senate to substantively review the recently adopted Dutch cookie law after the summer recess.

We recently covered the adoption by Dutch Parliament …read more