Newsletter November/December 2009
EMPLOYMENT
Is Bottom Pinching Sexual Harassment?
A director jokingly pinched an employee's buttocks during a
Christmas reception. The employee did not find this funny and
argued that it was sexual harassment. What is decisive in this
respect: the joke or the manner in which the employee experienced
the joke?
read on...
Payment of ATV Days
Does the statutory provision that holidays not yet taken may be
paid out upon the end of the employment also apply to ATV days not
yet taken? The Dutch Supreme Court answered this question on 2
October 2009.
read on...
Change to 'primary' employment conditions not
subject to consent works council
An employer decides to change several terms of
employment for its managers. The Central Works Council is of the
opinion these changes are subject to the Council's right of
consent and should therefore have been presented to the Council.
read on...
ENVIRONMENTAL AND CITY
PLANNING
Consequences of the General Provisions of Environmental
Law Act for the Wro
The General Provisions of Environmental Law Act
(Wet algemene bepalingen omgevingsrecht, "Wabo") is
expected to enter into force on 1 July 2010. The Wabo will have
great consequences for environmental law as we know it. Below, a
quick glance into the future and the consequences for the
authorities from the Spatial Planning Act are described.
read on...
INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY
No Database Protection for Airline Reservation
System
Interesting judgment about the conditions for relying on database
law. The case is as follows. Travelport exploits an aviation
reservation system, to which 63,000 travel agents are connected.
IATA receives data from that system for the handling of payments
between the airline companies and the travel agents. Both
Travelport and IATA develop business intelligence products for the
benefit of airline companies on the basis of the same source data.
Travelport wanted to impose a prohibition on IATA through a
reliance on database law but this claim was rejected in preliminary
relief proceedings.
read on...
MEDIA
Press Law Chronicle
Mediaforum has published a Press Law Chronicle written by Jens van
den Brink and Otto Volgenant (Kennedy Van der Laan), with an
overview of the most important rulings and developments in the
field of (un)lawful publications in the period 2006-2009.
read on...
Forum Administrator Not Liable For Offensive Texts
Over the past few years there have been many
civil-law proceedings about the liability of forum administrators
for copyright infringements or infringements of privacy by messages
of visitors. The present matter concerns a criminal case regarding
the same issue. The question is whether the forum administrator of
an extreme right-wing forum Stormfront is responsible for the
content of the texts posted by visitors.
read on…
PUBLIC
PROCUREMENT
Outsourcing Is Not Always Insourcing
Over the past years there seems to be a tendency
that contracting authorities and even private parties are obliged
more and more often - and for ever "smaller" contracts - to meet
procedural rules of procurement law when placing contracts. The
exceptions to this obligation to tender must be explained more and
more restrictively, as has followed once again from a recent
judgment of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in the "Acoset
judgment" of 15 October 2009, regarding the "quasi insourcing" of
contracts.
read on…
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
More Participation Possibilities Municipalities in
Deployment Next-Gen Broadband
Broadband density in the Netherlands is high. The economic crisis
has slowed down the deployment of next-gen broadband. Therefore an
amendment of the Telecommunications Act is being prepared that will
make participation in broadband networks by municipalities easier.
This article discusses the bill, the consequences thereof and
related documents.
read on...