Joris Deene
When soccer prodigy Lamine Yamal recently won the World Cup with Spain—at the expense of Lionel Messi—an AI parody immediately surfaced: a reversal of the iconic 2007 photo in which Messi is holding the six-month-old baby...
Does the journalistic exception to the GDPR apply to the online publication of criminal convictions?
Therefore, simply posting court rulings online does not make someone a journalist. On July 9, 2026, the Court of Justice ruled in the Legal Newsdesk Sweden case (No. C-199/24) that merely making... available for a fee...
Does a video platform lose its protected status as soon as it signs an advertising deal with a creator?
In principle, a platform like YouTube is not liable for what users upload, as long as its role is limited to merely storing that content. But what if the platform, before entering into a commercial...
Does a platform lose its liability protection as soon as an algorithm determines who sees what content?
Yes, to a significant extent. In its judgment of June 16, 2026, in the joined cases of WebGroup Czech Republic and Coyote System (C-188/24 and C-190/24), the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice ruled that a platform that...
Can FIFA’s player agent regulations restrict agents’ fees, licenses, and personal information?
On July 16, 2026 (C-209/23), the Court of Justice ruled that FIFA’s rules governing player agents conflict with European competition law, the free movement of services, and data protection law in several respects. In...
Can the name OPENAI be registered as a European trademark?
The U.S. company OpenAI, Inc. is attempting to register the word “OPENAI” as a European Union trademark, but the General Court of the European Union has (for now) blocked that attempt. In its judgment of July 15, 2026 (T-555/25)...
Can a sports association just post the name of a doped athlete online?
A national anti-doping organization may publish the name of an athlete caught doping, the sanction imposed, and the reason for it on the internet, but not without limits. That is the essence of the Court of Justice’s July 14 ruling...
Can you sell a perfume that is “inspired by” a well-known brand?
Offering a cheaper perfume “inspired by” a well-known fragrance may seem like a clever marketing ploy, but it is legally very risky. The presiding judge of the Dutch-language commercial court in...
What are the risks if AI-generated legal rulings end up in your court briefs?
Lawyers and parties who use generative AI to draft legal briefs are running into a growing problem: so-called “hallucinations”—a court ruling or statutory provision that sounds convincing but does not exist. It...
When is a phishing victim considered grossly negligent and held personally liable for their loss?
A phishing victim is only fully liable for his or her losses if the bank proves that the victim was grossly negligent, and not merely careless. In a ruling dated June 29, 2026, the Court of Cassation ruled...
Is it permissible to post a work online that is still protected in one EU country but not in another?
Anyone who publishes a work that is in the public domain in their own country but is still protected by copyright elsewhere can avoid infringement in that other country by implementing effective geoblocking. That...
Can a satirical magazine publish a fabricated photomontage of you?
A senior Walloon civil servant saw his head superimposed on a half-naked body in the style of *Playboy* in the humor section of *Moustique* magazine. He sought one euro in symbolic damages. The French-speaking court of...
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