The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has handed down a reference for a preliminary ruling in Case C-610/15 (Stichtin Brein v Ziggo BV, XS4ALL Internet BV), holding that making available and managing an online platform for sharing copyright-protected works may constitute an infringement of copyright.

The case was brought by a Dutch anti-piracy group Stichtin Brein against two internet service providers and was referred to the CJEU by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands to seek clarification on a point of EU law.

The CJEU considered whether an internet sharing platform, such as ‘The Pirate Bay’, which makes available and manages the indexation of metadata relating to copyrighted works, was providing ‘communication to the public’ of copyrighted materials within the meaning of Directive 2001/29/EC on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society. It was noted that although copyrighted material was placed online by users and not by the operators of ‘The Pirate Bay’, by indexing files to allow users locate and share protected works, it played “an essential role in making the works in question available.”

It was also noted that although ‘The Pirate Bay’ does not host content, it provides a torrent search engine, classifying files under different categories and providing access to protected material “with full knowledge of the consequences of their conduct.”

The case will now return to the Dutch courts for final determination on the issue, but the ruling strengthens the position of copyright holders throughout the EU who wish to hold online sharing platforms accountable.