QVC denied ‘public value’ status in landmark German court ruling
May 27, 2026 19.10 Europe/London By Jörn Krieger

The Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia has ruled that teleshopping broadcasters including QVC are not entitled to inclusion on Germany’s public value list, concluding that such channels do not sufficiently contribute to opinion and content diversity under the country’s media law framework.

In a landmark judgment delivered in Münster on 27 May 2026, the court dismissed an appeal by the operator of a nationwide teleshopping channel against media regulator LfM over its exclusion from the public value list for the 2022-2025 period.

The public value regime, introduced under Germany’s media state treaty, requires smart TV platforms and other user interfaces to make selected commercial and public TV and radio channels particularly easy to find. The list is redetermined every three years by the country’s media authorities.

The 13th Senate of the Higher Administrative Court found that the claimant failed to meet the core statutory criteria, which prioritise news coverage of political and contemporary affairs, regional and local information as well as programming for younger audiences.

According to the court, the legislature deliberately designed the system to strengthen opinion and content diversity by improving the visibility of services that might otherwise struggle against mass-market commercial channels.

“The programme offered by the claimant does not fulfil the required conditions of the media state treaty,” presiding judge Mareike Weber said in the reasoning. The court also stressed that teleshopping services remain available through standard discoverability mechanisms and may promote themselves independently.

The case is regarded as the first ruling by a German higher administrative court specifically addressing the position of teleshopping channels within the public value framework.

During the hearing, QVC lawyer Raimund Schütz argued that the system effectively excluded teleshopping providers altogether and described it as a “closed system”. He said lawmakers should explicitly state such exclusion if that was the intended outcome.

The court rejected that argument, emphasising that the law distinguishes between advertising and editorial information. “Advertising and information are two clearly separable concepts,” Weber said during the hearing, according to a report by news agency dpa.

The court allowed an appeal to the Federal Administrative Court due to the fundamental significance of the case.

Germany’s next public value determination round is scheduled for 2028.