Hengeler Mueller client Victor's Group prevails against GEMA and Corint Media in landmark copyright case before Federal Court of Justice

VHC 2 Seniorenresidenz und Pflegeheim gGmbH, a member of Victor's Group, operates retirement homes. The collecting societies GEMA and Corint Media brought claims against it, seeking an injunction to prohibit the cable retransmission of TV programs received via a satellite within the retirement home. In the GEMA case, following a reference from the Federal Court of Justice, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in a judgment of 30 April 2026 that such retransmission does not infringe the right of communication to the public of authors under Article 3 of the InfoSoc Directive (2001/29).

In the appeal proceedings (I ZR 34/23, I ZR 35/23) that resumed after the CJEU decision, the Federal Court of Justice, in judgments of 3 September 2026, dismissed the appeals brought by GEMA and Corint Media against the judgments of the Higher Regional Court of Zweibrücken dismissing the collecting societies' claims (4 U 101/22; 4 U 102/22). The Federal Court of Justice applied the CJEU’s guidelines on the fully harmonised communication to the public right for authors (GEMA proceedings) and translated them to the non-harmonised neighbouring rights of broadcasters under Section 87 of the German Copyright Act (UrhG) (Corint Media proceedings), for which it also ruled out an infringement in the absence of 'specific technical means' and a 'new public'. The Federal Court of Justice further held that this applies not only to the retransmission into the residents’ rooms, but also to retransmissions to dining and communal areas. The Federal Court of Justice’s judgements are final.

Hengeler Mueller represented Victor’s Group before the Regional and Higher Regional Courts and before the European Court of Justice (CJEU) and advised it throughout the appeal proceedings before the Federal Court of Justice, where Victor's Group was represented by Reiner Hall of law firm Hall & Quast.

Hengeler Mueller team for Victor’s Group                                                  

TMT: Tobias Schubert (lead), Albrecht Conrad, Prof. Wolfgang Spoerr (all partner), Róża Grzybowska (senior associate), Maarten van der Werf, Johannes Weigl (both associate, all Berlin).