The Court of Appeal has thrown out an attempt by two of the country's largest broadband providers, TalkTalk and BT Group, to challenge an earlier rejection of their Judicial Review against the controversial Digital Economy Act (DEA).


The original JR was won last year but, when the time came to pass judgement (April 2011), the Royal Courts of Justice rejected the majority of their case against the act. Back then the Judge (Mr Justice Parker) dismissed all but one (Draft Costs Order) of the five grounds (challenges) to the Act (here).

The Five Judicial Review Grounds
• Compliance with Technical Standards Directive (which says there was a need to notify Europe in advance of the legislation);

• Compatibility with privacy directives;

• Compatibility with e-commerce directives;

• Whether the obligations are proportionate;

• Additional issue of potential incompatibility with the Authorisation Directive which is part of EU law governing the regulation of communication providers including ISPs.

Both ISPs are now "considering our position" and whether or not to take their fight into the European Courts. This seems like a distinct possibility as most of the remaining grounds deal with the acts compatibility with EU law, or lack thereof.


The DEA itself threatens to identify "suspected" internet copyright infringers (pirates), although some fear that the use of weak evidence could also result in innocent broadband customers being unfairly penalised or possibly even disconnected ("suspended") from their ISP (e.g. The United Nations Human Rights Council).

UPDATE 8:36am

Added a comment from Law Firm Harbottle & Lewis.