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BT, TalkTalk seek leave to appeal DEA ruling

Plan to challenge 4 of the 5 points addressed by High Court

BT and TalkTalk are seeking leave to appeal a ruling on four points relating to their challenge to the Digital Economy Act, after their legal gambit against it failed last month.

In April, an effort by the two telecom companies to derail the copyright infringement portions of the DEA was thrown out by the High Court in London.

The judges chucked out the arguments that the provisions designed to clean up their networks were unfair.

BT and TalkTalk were tossed a scrap on a technicality relating to costs. However, nothing else in the DEA would require changing, according to the ruling.

Today, the two companies confirmed that they would seek an appeal on four of the five grounds addressed in the High Court case last month.

"These relate to the EU's Technical Standards Directive, the Authorisation Directive, the E-Commerce Directive and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive. BT and TalkTalk believe the DEA is not consistent with these directives," said the ISPs in a statement this afternoon.

BT and TalkTalk said that the fifth area addressed in the High Court's initial ruling related to whether the DEA was symbiotic with EU rules on proportionality.

"Both companies continue to take the view that the regime represents a disproportionate interference with the rights of internet service providers, subscribers and internet users and with the concept of freedom of expression," the statement continued.

"They recognise, however, the Court's view that there is an exceptionally high threshold to show that this legislation was not a proportionate response prior to the code of practice being published and have concluded not to pursue leave to appeal on this ground." ®

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