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Rome I Regulation: choice of law for contractual obligations
The EU Rome I Regulation (593/2008) of the European Parliament and of the Council came into force on 17 December 2009 (Convention). The Convention sets rules to determine the (national) law applicable to contractual obligations in civil and commercial matters. This Regulation replaces the 1980 Rome Convention and is especially relevant to cross-border businesses. The intention of the Convention is to provide legal certainty in cases where the parties have not expressly chosen the applicable law governing their contract.
EU rules in favour of Google’s AdWords
On March 23, 2010 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) decided in the matter of Google France SARL, Google Inc. vs. Louis Vuitton and others (C-236/08 to C-238/08). In its judgment, the ECJ ruled that Google has not infringed trademark law by offering advertisers the opportunity to buy keywords (AdWords) corresponding to their competitors' trademarks. However, the illegal use of AdWords can still be prohibited.