European Union copyright law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights—Advocate General Szpunar’s Opinions in (C-469/17) Funke Medien, (C-476/17) Pelham GmbH and (C-516/17) Spiegel Online

Abstract

Increasingly, national courts have begun to consider the impact of the Charter of Fundamental Rights on EU copyright law. In (C-469/17) Funke Medien, (C-476/17) Pelham GmbH and (C-516/17) Spiegel Online v Volker Beck, the German Federal Supreme Court has referred a series of important questions about the relationship between the Charter, copyright law and national constitutional norms. This article explores the Opinions of Advocate General Szpunar in those cases and considers some of the broader potential consequences of the approach that he advocates.

The Road Not Taken – the CJEU Sheds Light on the Role of Fundamental Rights in the European Copyright Framework – a Case Note on the Pelham, Spiegel Online and Funke Medien Decisions

“…25 Due to limited space, we only refer to the opinion of Advocate General Szpunar in order to provide further context to the CJEU's considerations. For a more extensive analysis of the opinions of the Advocate General in the three cases, see for example Griffiths (2019); Geiger and Izyumenko (2019).…”