The TuneIn case or communication to the public in the UK after Brexit: the status quo with targeting as a governance tool

Abstract TuneIn is a case dealing with a portal service on the Internet that allows users to listen to Internet radio stations from around the world and even to select stations that play their favorite music at any given moment in time. The UK courts had to decide whether TuneIn’s activity amounted to a communication to the public of the music played by the radio stations. Because it is not authorized, it will constitute copyright infringement. The courts established that TuneIn did target the public in the UK and that on that basis, there was a communication to the public. In a Brexit context, the court refused to diverge from the caselaw of the Court of Justice of the European Union and put in place stringent requirement for future cases that may warrant any such divergence.