France – Clarification on the "must carry"
obligation and framing in the case of the neighbouring rights of an
audiovisual communication company by the Cour de Cassation
On 4 July 2019, in the case opposing the company
Playmédia to the company France Télévisions,
the Cour de Cassation specified the conditions for
the application of Article 34-2 of Law No. 86-1067 of 30 September 1986 relating
to the "must carry" obligation i.e. the obligation that
audiovisual communication services distributors have to broadcast
public channels transmitted by terrestrial frequencies.
On the one hand, the Cour de Cassation approves the Appeal Court
for having ruled that Playmédia could not benefit from the
abovementioned obligation as there was neither a contractual
relationship between the distributor and the editor of audiovisual
communication services nor a subscription system to access
Playmédia's services, a diffusion, first unrestricted
then conditioned to
