This is the second of a set of two blog posts (see Part 1 here) which analyses the limitations to parties’ freedom to determine the law applicable to contracts aimed at the exploitation of protected content online. It discusses the concept of overriding mandatory provisions and its potential application to relevant rules of (copyright) contract…

The online exploitation of content protected by copyright inherently entails cross-border aspects. Thus, the digital context of copyright exploitation contracts leads to questions of applicable law. Business-to-business contracting parties enjoy significant freedom in determining the law applicable to their contractual relationship. It makes commercial sense for parties to leverage their relative bargaining position to impose…