Following the news that BT and TalkTalk have (mostly) lost their claim for a judicial review of the Digital Economy Act 2010, Kim Walker, Partner at leading law firm Thomas Eggar, offers her comments.
“It seems the problem was that the legal issues became clouded by public policy points and criticism of what might have been seen as the legislation’s hasty passage through Parliament at the end of the last Government. Just goes to show that what amounts to bad law for certain groups can be made with all due process.
“ISPs are rightly concerned at the level of obligations and costs imposed on them in relation to online copyright infringement, but have only succeeded in getting a ruling that OFCOM cannot pass on 25% of costs to them as proposed (with rights holders picking up the remaining 75%). Other major concerns, such as incompatibility of the Act with certain provisions of the Electronic Commerce Directive and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive were dismissed.”
For more information, contact Jim or Paul at the Thomas Eggar press office on 01273 666200 or via thomaseggar@midnight.co.uk
