03/02/2020 CURIA - Documents InfoCuria Case-law English (en) Home > Search form > List of results > Documents Language of document : English ECLI:EU:C:2014:192 JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (Fourth Chamber) 27 March 2014 (*) (Request for a preliminary ruling — Approximation of laws — Copyright and related rights — Information society — Directive 2001/29/EC — Website making cinematographic works available to the public without the consent of the holders of a right related to copyright — Article 8(3) — Concept of ‘intermediaries whose services are used by a third party to infringe a copyright or related right’ — Internet service provider — Order addressed to an internet service provider prohibiting it from giving its customers access to a website — Balancing of fundamental rights) In Case C‑314/12, REQUEST for a preliminary ruling under Article 267 TFEU from the Oberster Gerichtshof (Austria), made by decision of 11 May 2012, received at the Court on 29 June 2012, in the proceedings UPC Telekabel Wien GmbH v Constantin Film Verleih GmbH, Wega Filmproduktionsgesellschaft mbH, THE COURT (Fourth Chamber), composed of L. Bay Larsen, President of the Chamber, K. Lenaerts, Vice-President of the Court, acting as a judge of the Fourth Chamber, M. Safjan, J. Malenovský (Rapporteur) and A. Prechal, Judges, Advocate General: P. Cruz Villalón, Registrar: A. Impellizzeri, Administrator, having regard to the written procedure and further to the hearing on 20 June 2013, after considering the observations submitted on behalf of: UPC Telekabel Wien GmbH, by M. Bulgarini and T. Höhne, Rechtsanwälte, Constantin Film Verleih GmbH and Wega Filmproduktionsgesellschaft mbH, by A. Manak and N. Kraft, Rechtsanwälte, the Austrian Government, by A. Posch, acting as Agent, the Italian Government, by G. Palmieri, acting as Agent, assisted by W. Ferrante, avvocato dello Stato, the Netherlands Government, by C. Schillemans and C. Wissels, acting as Agents, the United Kingdom Government, by L. Christie, acting as Agent, assisted by S. Malynicz, barrister, the European Commission, by J. Samnadda and F.W. Bulst, acting as Agents, after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General at the sitting on 26 November 2013, gives the following Judgment This request for a preliminary ruling concerns the interpretation of Article 5(1) and (2)(b) and Article 8(3) of Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society (OJ 2001 L 167, p. 10), and of certain fundamental rights enshrined in EU law. The request has been made in proceedings between (i) UPC Telekabel Wien GmbH (‘UPC Telekabel’) and (ii) Constantin Film Verleih GmbH (‘Constantin Film’) and Wega Filmproduktionsgesellschaft mbH (‘Wega’) concerning an application for UPC Telekabel to be ordered to block the access of its customers to a website making available to the public some of the films of Constantin Film and of Wega without their consent. Legal context EU law Recitals 9 and 59 in the preamble to Directive 2001/29 state: Any harmonisation of copyright and related rights must take as a basis a high level of protection, since such rights are crucial to intellectual creation. … Intellectual property has therefore been recognised as an integral part of property. … In the digital environment, in particular, the services of intermediaries may increasingly be used by third parties for infringing activities. In many cases such intermediaries are best placed to bring such infringing activities to an end. Therefore, without prejudice to any other sanctions and remedies available, rightholders should have the possibility of applying for an injunction against an intermediary who carries a third party’s infringement of a protected work or other subject-matter in a network. … The conditions and modalities relating to such injunctions should be left to the national law of the Member States.’ Article 1 of that directive, headed ‘Scope’, provides in paragraph 1: ‘This Directive concerns the legal protection of copyright and related rights in the framework of the internal market, with particular emphasis on the information society.’ curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=149924&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=4079936 1/6