Can I start my own business with an idea that I originally developed for my employer? How can I protect my business concept? These and other commercial law issues gathered by a survey in the Regensburg start-up community will be dealt within the seminar offered by Tabea Bauermeister and Anna Bernzen in the upcoming winter semester. More information can be found - here
In the summer semester of 2024, the lecture "Private Digital Law III" will be offered for the first time. It will centre around (European) platform regulations. After an introduction to the special features of the platform economy, the individual legal acts, in particular the DMA (Digital Markets Act), the DSA (Digital Services Act) and the P2B Regulation (Platform to Business), wil be examined in depth. Further information on the oral exam can be found - here
A pharmacist is suing his competitor for an allegedly inadmissible processing of health data in online sales. But is health data even generated when ordering paracetamol or other non-prescription drugs? And even if it were, shouldn't the GDPR violation actually be claimed by the affected customers themselves? On beck-aktuell, Tabea Bauermeister discusses the Opinion of Advocate General Szpunar published on these questions in the Lindenapotheke case (C-21/23).
In early April, together with Prof. Dr. Anna Bernzen, Prof. Dr. Tabea Bauermeister gave an introductory lecture on civil law at the Tashkent State Universitiy of Law in Uzbekistan. For the Uzbek law students, it was a great opportunity to put their German language skills to use in a legal context, and for the lecturers it was a very enriching intercultural experience.
On June 6 and 7, together with Prof. Dr. Sebastian Schwamberger, Prof. Dr. Tabea Bauermeister is organizing a conference on Private Enforcement in the Digital Single Market.
Together with students of HTW Berlin,
the University of Augsburg, the Hanoi School of Law as well as the National University of Vietnam and supervised by Tabea Bauermeister, four students of the Univerity of Regensburg participated in a seminar on "Fundamental Rights and their Impact on the Civil Law System" in Vietnam. Discussed and debated were the protection of human rights under international law and its impact on civil law. Moreover, the seminar included a moot court in which the students were able to apply their previously acquired knowledge. With regard to their flight cost, the students from Regensburg were supported by the Regensburger Universitätsstiftung.
With the 107th edition of the Frankfurter Kommentar zum Kartellrecht (Frankfurt Commentary on Antitrust Law), Tabea Bauermeister's contribution on Art. 7 DMA has been published. Article 7 DMA gives providers of number-independent interpersonal communication services a right to interoperability with the designated central platform services WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Amongst others, the contribution covers the background and genesis, the (potential) addressees, the concept and dimensions of interoperability, questions on law enforcement and related provisions.
At the 4th German Conference for Young PIL Scholars, Tabea Bauermeister gave a presentation on the international private law dimension of the claim for damages in the proposal for a Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence. Within the compendium "Die Achtung des Fremden", the corresponding transcript has now been published.
On 27/02/24, as part of the Zoom conference "New Competition Law of Uzbekistan: Implications from the international scholarship" hosted by the Tashkent State University of Law, Tabea Bauermeister held a presentation on European competition law and the Digital Markets Act.
Under the title "The Pitfalls of the Touchscreen", the legal educational journal JURA published a mock exam composed by Tabea Bauermeister on errors while concluding a contract. See JURA 2024, 297
With regard to Sec. 327r of the German Civil Code, the government draft (BT-Drs. 19/27653, p. 77) states that the provision is an "exception" and that – as the contractual parties are generally bound by what they agreed upon – the provision must be interpreted in a restrictive way. But is that really true? Does Sec. 327r BGB infringe the principle of pacta sunt servanda? On Monday, February 5, 2024, as part of the Regensburger Fakultätsseminar, Tabea Bauermeister gave a presentation on these very questions.
In its second issue 2024, K&R published a re-print of Tabea Bauermeister's reflections on Sec. 327p (1) (2) of the German Civil Code (BGB) and the question of how the still relatively new provision relates to previous case law on digital remote access.
During the conference "Wirtschaft und Methode" at the University of Vienna on 30 November 2023, Tabea Bauermeister spoke about the future CSDD-Directive and its use of undertakings. In particular, she asked whether undertakings are instrumentalised in order to project European human rights standards and environmental protection provisions into non-EU countries. More about the conference: https://wpn.univie.ac.at/startseite/
In practical terms, the Bundeskartellamt-decision on Google data processing (05/10/2023 - B7-70/21) means that Alphabet must grant its users a comprehensive right of choice regarding cross-service data processing. In her comment published in WuW 12/2023, Tabea Bauermeister highlights that the comparison with previous proceedings based on Section 19 of the German Competition Act and with the Digital Markets Act is at least as interesting as these practical benefits.
Presentation “Digital remote access – re-evaluation because of new EU law?”
During the conference "Legal Enforcement in the Digital Space" at the Johannes Kepler University Linz on 24 November 2023, Tabea Bauermeister explored the question of whether the Digital Content Directive and the Sale of Goods Directive require re-evaluating the case law on digital remote access.
On Kluwer Competition Law Blog, Tabea Bauermeister introduces the three major novelties following the latest amendment law to the German Competition Act on 7 November 2023:
a new competition tool irrespective of an infringement but relying on problematic market conditions
national provisions accompanying the DMA (Bundeskartellamt-investigations into possible infringements of the DMA as well as provisions allowing for damage claims)
a presumption of infringement benefits
As for e.g. a landlord it is quite tempting to change the door locks in the absence of the non-evicted tenant, taking law enforcement into one’s own hands is a longstanding, well-known whish. Because a digital door lock can be reprogrammed remotely and the battery of an e-car can be provided with a recharge lock, digitalization increasingly adds further opportunities. Regarding these new methods, the BGH (26/10/2022 - XII ZR 89/21) expressed skepticism. However, Section 327p para. 1 p. 2 BGB now provides for the possibility of preventing further use by the contractual partner. As part of a lecture at Bucerius Law School on 15 November, Tabea Bauermeister explored the question of whether following this new provision, as long as only digital tools are used, autonomous arbitrary law enforcement is now a feasible option.
On September 30th, as part of the interdisciplinary postdoctoral conference "Competition in Digital Markets", Tabea Bauermeister gave a presentation on Private Enforcement of the Digital Markets Act at the University of Würzburg.
Fotos: Wolfram Merger
Further information about the conference:
the bottom of how it works.
On September 26th, as part of the "1st Ars Iuris Legal Potentials Conference", Tabea Bauermeister gave a presentation on the Rights-of-Nature-movement and its potential regarding law enforcement.
On November 1st, a short version of said presentation was published on Ars Iuris Vienna – Blog: https://arsiuris.univie.ac.at/blog/detailansicht-blog/news/rights-of-nature-nothing-but-symbolism/
At the 24th DSRI Herbstakademie, on September 14th, Tabea Bauermeister delivered a presentation on the significance of Sec. 327p Para. 1 Sentence 2 of the German Civil Code (BGB) for digital remote access. The corresponding paper was published in Bernzen/Fritzsche/Heinze/Thomsen, Das IT-Recht vor der (europäischen) Zeitenwende, 2023, 757-772.
Further information about the conference: https://dsri.de/herbstakademie/