Pro­hi­bi­ti­on of unlawful You­Tube blo­cking obtai­ned

Inte­rim injunc­tion issued against You­Tube by the Colo­gne Regio­nal Court

Colo­gne, April 21, 2021. As recent­ly as March 2021, the Ber­lin Regio­nal Court rejec­ted the urgen­cy in moti­ons against video blo­cking in press mat­ters for a jour­na­list against You­Tube. Howe­ver, the Colo­gne Regio­nal Court con­ti­nues to com­ply with effec­ti­ve legal pro­tec­tion and pro­hi­bits YouTube/Google from dele­ting a video wit­hout cau­se.

The media and press law firm Reh­katsch Rechts­an­wäl­te suc­cessful­ly obtai­ned an injunc­tion against YouTube/Google Ire­land Limi­t­ed, Ire­land. In it, the com­pa­ny was pro­hi­bi­ted from blo­cking a video wit­hout tel­ling the pro­vi­der exact­ly which pas­sa­ge of the video was said to vio­la­te which com­pa­ny poli­cy. A mere refe­rence due to “medi­cal mis­in­for­ma­ti­on” was not suf­fi­ci­ent. Thus, a review of the accu­sa­ti­on was alre­a­dy not pos­si­ble.

The com­plaint was filed by the Colo­gne lawy­er Gor­don Pan­kal­la. The lat­ter had pos­ted his own video on his chan­nel with an inter­view of a fel­low lawy­er and a law pro­fes­sor. The video was dele­ted for no reason. In respon­se to the com­plaint, You­Tube sim­ply infor­med “Com­plaint rejec­ted. Gui­de­line Medi­cal Mis­in­for­ma­ti­on.“

In addi­ti­on att­or­ney Reh­katsch: In cri­sis times it can­not be that indi­vi­du­al courts in our coun­try sup­press the liber­ty of the press, by not per­mit­ting urgent legal pro­ce­du­res of jour­na­lists. I am all the more plea­sed that the Colo­gne Regio­nal Court is gran­ting effec­ti­ve legal pro­tec­tion even against mono­po­lists like You­Tube.“

YouTube/Google can file an appeal against the preli­mi­na­ry injunc­tion. Att­or­ney Pan­kal­la also intends to have the mat­ter resol­ved by a basic decla­ra­to­ry judgment action. This is also inten­ded to prepa­re future claims for dama­ges. After all, arbi­tra­ry blo­cking also impairs the pos­si­bi­li­ty of mone­tiza­ti­on.

If you also have pro­blems with unlawful or arbi­tra­ry blo­cking by YouTube/Google and want to defend yours­elf against it, plea­se call us (0221–4201074) or send us an email(info@rehkatsch.de). We repre­sent your inte­rests.

Colo­gne Regio­nal Court: Ref. 28 O 125/21, here the decis­i­on:
https://rehkatsch.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/LG-Koeln-Verbot-YouTube-Sperre_geschwaerzt.pdf