Caroline de Vries is a senior associate at bureau Brandeis. Caroline’s professional focus is on information law, more particularly (online) copyright law, the liability of intermediaries, privacy and freedom of speech.

Caroline frequently litigates these fields of law. She has litigation experience not only before the District Courts and Courts Appeals, but also the Supreme Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union (HvJEU). Caroline was/is, inter alia, involved with the groundbreaking cases Sanoma/Geenstijl (re. the legal status of hyperlinks), XS4ALL/Brein (re. the blocking of The Pirate Bay-website), the Dutch against Plasterk (regarding the intelligence practices of the NSA), NUV/Tom Kabinet (re. “digital exhaustion” of e-books), NUV/Vereniging Openbare Bibliotheken (re. e-lending of e-books) and NSE/Brein (re. the liability of so-called Usenet providers). In handing these cases, Caroline has gained a great deal of experience that is hard to equal.

With equal pleasure Caroline assists her clients in smaller cases or summary proceedings, or in preventing those. Caroline often works for online intermediaries/companies that are confronted with users who infringe intellectual property rights and wish to know their rights and obligations. Caroline advices and litigates on their legal position, liability and the measures they should (or should not) take, such as the duty to remove materials (NTD), the provision of identifying details, or the taking of other (filtering) measures. Caroline has an in-depth knowledge of the law and provides her clients with practical advice. Clients value Caroline for her fighting mentality and her accuracy.

Apart from litigation, Caroline advices her clients regarding copyright law, the liability of intermediaries, media law, privacy, and consumer law. She is also helpful in drafting and negotiating the necessary (copyright)contracts, therewith taking into account the new copyright contract law.

Caroline obtained her law degree at the University of Amsterdam (LL.M. Information Law 2011, cum laude) and also spent one semester studying at New York University School of Law. Caroline has been a member of the Dutch Bar since 2012.

Caroline has published articles on the liability of Internet intermediaries as well as the influence of the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights on intellectual property law.

In 2018, Caroline was nominated as the Most Talented Litigation Attorney in the Netherlands.

Publications

• Annotation onder EHRM 4 december 2018 (Magyar Jeti Zrt./Hongarije), Mediaforum 2019/6.
• Annotation onder Rb. Amsterdam 23 december 2015 (Anne Frank Fonds/KNAW), IER 2017/5.
• ‘De toenemende invloed van het Handvest op het recht van intellectuele eigendom’, BIE september 2015, p. 174-183.
• ‘Subjectieve verwijtbaarheid: Een toets om de aansprakelijkheid van internettussenpersonen voor het faciliteren van auteursrechtinbreuken te beoordelen’, AMI 2012/1.