Gaming & Esports

The Data Act harbours many ambiguities. We have collected and answered the most frequently asked questions about the Data Act from presentations and client work. Is your question not included? Then please get in touch with us!

Are we covered by the Data Act? In case of doubt, yes. As soon as you are a manufacturer of connected products or a provider of connected services and place them on the market in the EU, you are generally covered by the Data Act.

On 26 March 2026, the Bundestag passed the Data Implementation Act (DADG). Germany has thus created the national legal framework required of member states by the EU Data Act - with a significant delay. Below we provide an overview of the background, content and fine regulations of the new law.

The decision of the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main (decision of 4 December 2025 - 6 W 165/25) clarifies that the infringement of trademark rights for competitors does not generally give rise to injunctive relief under the Unfair Competition Act, as the relevant standards do not constitute market conduct rules within the meaning of Section 3a UWG. However, it was pointed out that the criminal offence of receiving stolen goods is recognised as a market conduct rule, which, however, did not apply in the present case due to a lack of evidence.

The topic of episode 39 of the Data Navigator Podcast is - once again - the importance of the Data Act for wind energy. Our guest is Stefan Grothe, Technical Officer at the German Wind Energy Association (BWE), the largest association in the renewable energy sector with over 17,000 members. We start with an overview of the wind energy ecosystem: Who are the typical stakeholders - from operators and managers to manufacturers and independent service providers, direct marketers and grid operators? Stefan Grothe explains why the operator structure in Germany is particularly heterogeneous - from community energy companies to large energy suppliers. One focus is on the data generated by wind turbines: Performance data, weather data, temperature, vibration monitoring and voltage data - usually as ten-minute SCADA data . What is particularly exciting is that the data flow is bidirectional - grid operators and direct marketers can also actively control turbines, for example in the event of grid bottlenecks or negative electricity prices. We discuss the new opportunities opened up by the Data Act: higher-resolution data for better condition monitoring, more precise predictions on the service life of large components and new business models for predictive maintenance. Subsystems also play an important role here - such as condition monitoring systems on gearboxes, bearings and rotor blades, whose data has often remained with the manufacturer or service provider up to now. When it comes to trade secrets and IP protection, Stefan Grothe takes a differentiated view: Reverse engineering via data analyses is conceivable in principle, but is only relevant in practice after a long period of operation, if independent service becomes possible at all. It is also clear that knowledge of the Data Act is still patchy in the industry. Finally, Stefan Grothe takes a look at the economic drivers: falling liability caps in maintenance contracts, increasing demands on electricity production costs and the growing importance of better data analyses for insurers and financiers make the Data Act strategically relevant for the industry.

This article is dedicated to the liability of influencers under the law of expression. After analysing the relevant legal provisions and case law, the authors provide recommendations for influencers and highlight the legal consequences of breaches of the (journalistic) duties of care incumbent on influencers. Influencers have become increasingly important in the public opinion discourse in recent years. Back in 2019, Rezo polarised opinion in the run-up to the European elections with his YouTube video "The destruction of the CDU". Influencer Naomi Seibt, who is considered a "Musk whisperer" and promotes far-right politics on her X account, also recently caused a stir. However, influencers are also shaping social discourse through their contributions beyond their involvement in political debates, for example on how to deal with MeToo cases. Nevertheless, there has been little discussion to date about the standards by which influencers must be measured in terms of the law of expression. Are their statements to be equated with those of private individuals, with the result that they can invoke the so-called layman's privilege? Or are influencers to be treated like traditional mass media under the law of expression, so that journalistic due diligence obligations also apply to them?

Comment on OLG Frankfurt am Main, judgement of 17 July 2025 - 16 U 80/24 In its decision, the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main deals with the public dispute between two well-known influencers and the related claims for injunctive relief under competition law. At the centre of the proceedings is the question of whether derogatory public statements between influencers, in this case streamers, can give rise to claims under competition law in addition to claims under personality law and where the line between permissible expression of opinion and impermissible disparagement is to be drawn in the constellation at issue.

Update on the article "Do you hear the same?": On 9 March, GEMA and the US company Suno Inc. had their first exchange of blows at Munich Regional Court I on the question of the extent to which AI-generated music infringes the rights of authors of protected musical works.