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ARTICLE · 09 JANUARY 2014

When Is Web-Scraping Of A Database Unlawful?

Mayer Brown
Mayer Brown
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The European Court has recently given its judgment in a case relating to meta search engines which trawl through databases of car advertisements.

European UnionMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment
Sarah Byrt
Sarah Byrt
Mark Prinsley
Mark Prinsley
Author LinkedIn connections

Keywords: web-scraping, database, unlawful, European Court, meta search engines

The European Court has recently given its judgment in a case relating to meta search engines which trawl through databases of car advertisements. The decision sheds light on how EU database right, which dates back to 1996, applies to modern day search engines in the internet advertising market – barely thought of 17 years ago – and looks at when repeatedly taking small amounts falls foul of that right.

The facts

The case relates to two competing websites which enable users to find second-hand cars being advertised for sale. Wegener's website is called AutoTrack, offering thousands of second-hand cars on a website, the contents of which change every day. Innoweb's site, GasPedaal, uses a dedicated meta search engine which searches third party sites, including AutoTrack, using those other sites' own search engines to track down adverts meeting the user's requirements, saves the

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