Noerr successfully represents Ultimate Fighting Championship against the Bavarian Regulatory Authority for New Media (BLM)

A Noerr team led by Tobias Bosch and Julian von Lucius has successfully represented the organiser of the mixed martial arts league Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in a 15-year legal dispute against the Bavarian Regulatory Authority for New Media (BLM).

In 2010, the BLM banned the television channel Sport1 from broadcasting UFC’s martial arts programs, in particular because it feared that the content could have a harmful effect on young people. The UFC challenged this broadcast ban through a third-party action. BLM had made its decision independently, without consulting the Commission for the Protection of Minors (Kommission für Jugendschutz) and had disregarded the content approvals already granted by the self-regulatory body that evaluates and approves media content for age-appropriate viewing (Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle (FSK)). At its core, the legal dispute revolved around the question of whether the BLM was even entitled to exercise such a discretionary authority in the first place.

In the ensuing legal dispute, Munich Administrative Court (Verwaltungsgericht München), the Bavarian Administrative Court (Bayerischer Verwaltungsgerichtshof), the Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht), the Bavarian Constitutional Court (Bayerischer Verfassungsgerichtshof) and the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) issued a total of 14 court decisions.

Most recently in 2024, the Bavarian Administrative Court ruled once again that the BLM’s decision was unlawful. The court found that the authority had acted without sufficient legal justification and had “completely disregarded” the constitutional rights of the UFC.

The BLM has now withdrawn its application to appeal against this decision.

Advisors to Ultimate Fighting Championship: Noerr

Lead: Tobias Bosch (partner) and Julian von Lucius (associated partner, both Data, Tech & Telecoms, Berlin)

Data, Tech & Telecoms: Tobias Frevert (partner), Johannes Stuve (associate, both Berlin)