In a verdict mid December a Dutch court has rejected claims by mapmaker Falkplan to prevent the public release of the Dutch national database of roads for re-use, including commercial re-use. (Verdict in Dutch)

Already in 2007 the Dutch government announced its intention to release the national road database, with a restriction on commercial re-use until 2009, which was later extended to 2011. This announcement was a response to several FOIA requests for the database including the right for commercial re-use, and the two year grace period was meant for existing market parties to be able to adapt to the changing circumstances.

Falkplan, in response to the imminent release for all types of re-use of the database in 2011, filed for a staying order, claiming release of the data would cause immediate and irreversible damage to its business.

The court sided with the State on all issues, and rejected the claims by Falkplan:

• There was no 'beginning of' proof that the release will be causing much harm. Theoretically there could be economic damage for Falkplan, but the court did not count that as an argument.
• The national road database itself is not enough to build products on that could directly compete with existing Falkplan products
• The database is the result of a public task, and was requested under Freedom of Information regulations, leaving the State not much choice but to release the data
• An upcoming law specifying regulations on the interaction between markets and public sector activities will not change the situation

The court concluded there's no legal reason for the State not to release the database for all types of re-use, and in the absence of clear proof of immediate significant damage to Falkplan the request for a stay was denied. Further legal procedures will be taking place on this issue, but those will not be reason to postpone the release of the database involved.

We will be further covering this case in our Legal Cases section.