Linking to a 'new public': parallels with the principle of exhaustion

The recent CJEU ruling in Nils Svensson and Others v Retreiver Sverige AB aims to establish a clear position on the legality of linking from a copyright perspective and to strike an appropriate balance between the protecting rights of IP owners while still respecting the free dissemination of content that uniquely defines the internet. To do so, the Court has established that linking does indeed fall under the right of ‘communication to the public’, but with the caveat that it will only constitute infringement if it reaches a ‘new public’ not contemplate by the rightholder. Numerous parallels might be drawn between this new, specific rule and the existing, more general principle of exhaustion of right under EU law. The purpose of this thesis then is to draw a comparison between the regulation of linking set down by the CJEU in Svensson and the principle of exhaustion, and to examine the implications of the apparent overlap between the two within the framework of EU copyright law more broadly.