Website’s Local Accessibility Determines Competence Of Court

The European Court of Justice recently decided on jurisdiction in cases of alleged copyright infringement by online publications in its ruling in Hejduk v EnergieAgentur. Under the Brussels I regulation, the national courts in the state where the website is accessible have jurisdiction in respect of the damage caused in that state. In view of this judgment, website operators should be aware that they may be sued for potentially infringing material in all European member states where their websites can be accessed.

The ECJ's judgment was given in a dispute between Ms Hejduk, a photographer who held the copyright to several photographic works, and EnergieAgentur, an organisation that published these photographic works on its website without Ms Hejduk's consent or any statement of authorship. Ms Hejduk brought an action before a court in Vienna. EnergieAgentur challenged that court's international and local jurisdiction. The court asked the ECJ whether it could