The Belgian Constitutional Court has essentially dismissed a lawsuit filed by Netflix and supported by Disney against the investment obligation applicable in Wallonia. The court thus fundamentally confirms the model that obliges audiovisual streaming services to invest in local productions.

At the same time, the judges referred several detailed questions to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling. These relate in particular to the specific structure of the regulation, such as the eligibility of certain investments and the consideration of expenditure in other EU member states. However, the fundamental admissibility of the investment obligation itself is not up for review.

In its judgement, the court clarified that the basic structure of the measure based on the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive is lawful. Staggered levy rates were also deemed permissible. The court also expressed no objections to the planned increase in the obligation from the current 2.2 per cent to up to 9.5 per cent of the relevant net turnover from 2027. In the court's opinion, the maximum rate was not disproportionately high for the companies affected.

In addition, language-specific sub-quotas were also confirmed, which provide for targeted investments in productions of the respective language community.

Industry organisations are largely positive about the decision and see it as confirmation that international streaming platforms can be used to finance European content. The referral to the European Court of Justice, however, is categorised as a clarification of technical details, the effects of which are currently still unclear.

The decision comes at a time when the Audiovisual Media Services Directive is being regularly reviewed at European level. This makes the judgement even more important for the ongoing debate on regulatory framework conditions and financing models in European film and series production.