Internet Hosting Case Referred to European Court of Justice

05 August 2011

The recent case in which the High Court held that the place at which material on the Internet is ‘made available’ is where the server containing the data is situated has been referred to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for a ruling on this point.

The argument concerns football data on the Internet, with the Swiss company Sportradar accused of copying statistics prepared by another company, Football Dataco. Sportradar argued that the case should be heard in Austria and Holland, where its servers are based, whereas Football Dataco contended that the English courts should hear the case as it concerns information that was accessed by Internet users in this country.

Mr Justice Floyd ruled that the applicable law was that of the country in which the data was placed on the server and from which ‘the transmission takes place’.

The decision was referred to the Court of Appeal, which has now made a reference to the ECJ for a ruling on the matter.
 
This case has clear implications for any organisation that makes data available over the Internet.

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