No, and that shouldn't be allowed, says the First Advocate General at the Court of Cassation. On September 1, 2026, Michel Nolet de Brauwere devoted his opening address for the judicial year—the so-called "mercuriale"—entirely to...
Joris DeeneWhen does an AI chatbot legally become a search engine?
As soon as an AI chatbot searches the web and reaches at least 45 million users per month in the European Union, the European Commission can treat it as a very large online search engine. That is exactly what happened on 31...
Is your government agency legally prepared for a cyberattack?
When hackers breached the City of Antwerp’s systems on the night of December 5–6, 2022, service counters, email systems, and even the Zorgbedrijf’s medication registry were down for weeks. Since then, the legal...
Which law applies to your crypto assets?
Anyone involved in a dispute over bitcoins or other crypto-assets faces a question that traditional assets never raise: Under which national law does this asset actually fall? The short answer: a definitive...
How does Belgium tackle illegal live streams of sports events?
As of June 1, 2024, anyone who illegally streams a soccer game in Belgium faces one of the fastest blocking procedures in Europe: the president of the Brussels Commercial Court issues a ruling within eight business days...
What are the risks for someone who hides AI instructions in their court filings?
Anyone who hides invisible instructions for AI systems in a court document is committing a serious abuse of the legal process and risks sanctions, even if no judge or opposing party ever runs the document through an AI system...
When are you required to pay damages following an unjustified seizure related to counterfeiting?
Anyone who obtains a seizure order regarding counterfeit goods based on a patent that is subsequently found to be invalid is not automatically required to compensate the party against whom the seizure was issued for damages: the party against whom the seizure was issued must prove negligence. But in this case, that negligence lay in...
Can a streaming service exclude its subscribers' right of withdrawal?
No, not exactly. On July 9, 2026, the Court of Justice ruled in the Sky Österreich case (CJEU July 9, 2026, C-234/25) that a streaming subscription with a dynamic selection does not constitute a supply of digital content, but...
Is it permissible to train an AI music generator using existing hits?
Not without a license, once the model can remember those hits and reproduce them in a recognizable way. That was the ruling of the Munich I Regional Court on July 31, 2026, in the case involving the German collecting society GEMA (the Belgian counterpart...
Are AI-generated images of child abuse a criminal offense?
Yes, when the images are realistic. On July 31, 2026, the Court of First Instance of West Flanders, Kortrijk Division, convicted a man who used artificial intelligence to create lifelike images of naked...
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