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Jane Pinho

Jane Pinho co-chairs Covington’s Entertainment and Media Industry Group and is a partner in the Technology and Communications practice and the International Business Reorganization practice. She has advised international streaming services on their content acquisition strategies, on new product launches and global expansions, and on media regulation and licensing for the past decade.

Jane works with media industry leaders with global operations, including streaming services, video games and interactive entertainment companies, and social media platforms. She has particular experience advising in relation to the creation, acquisition, and distribution of digital content in the UK and Europe, in relation to the multi-territory launch, expansion, monetization and marketing of digital media products and services and in relation to compliance with the UK’s broadcasting, on-demand, video-sharing platform and online safety regimes, representing clients facing regulatory scrutiny. She also has experience advising media and technology companies on UK and EU consumer protection law, including on an investigation by the EU Commission and the Consumer Protection Co-operation Network.

Jane is also a key figure in Covington’s International Business Reorganization practice. She has managed global post-acquisition business reorganizations, pre-sale and pre-spin business separations and tax reorganizations for companies with substantial global footprints for more than a decade.

Contact:Read more about Jane PinhoEmail

Digital contracts and subscriptions have significantly increased, with the subscription economy tripling since 2017, according to the European Commission’s Digital Fairness Act Fitness Check. However, the Fitness Check points out that the number of issues with digital subscriptions, such as difficult cancellations, automatic renewals without reminders, and unclear subscription terms, have also increased. The Commission proposes to tackle these issues in its proposed Digital Fairness Act (“DFA”), which recently entered its consultation phase (see our blog post here).

This post briefly highlights certain issues with digital subscriptions identified in the Fitness Check, outlines how these issues are currently regulated in the EU, and considers the Fitness Check’s proposals to address these issues. It is the fourth post in our series on the upcoming DFA – previous posts covered influencer marketing, AI chatbots in consumer interactions, and personalised advertising and pricing.Continue Reading Digital Fairness Act Series — Topic 4: Digital Subscriptions

On July 17, 2025, the European Commission launched a “call for evidence” and public consultation on the Digital Fairness Act (“DFA”), an anticipated new consumer protection law. The Commission seeks feedback on existing EU consumer protection laws and on proposals for how the DFA could address the following two problems with the existing laws, as identified through a “Fitness Check” of EU consumer law published in October 2024:

  • Lack of digital fairness for consumers. This particularly affects vulnerable groups such as minors, offering them suboptimal choices that can lead to financial harm, loss of time, negative health impacts, and indirect effects like environmental costs.
  • Unclear rules for businesses and market fragmentation. This results in increased business costs, hampers cross-border trade, leads to missed opportunities, and causes unfair competition, particularly from non-EU traders.

The Commission has also emphasized its objective to enhance the EU’s competitiveness, aiming for simplification of consumer protection rules and the removal of barriers within the EU Market. This includes efforts to achieve greater legal certainty regarding unfair commercial practices. The goal is to address enforcement deficiencies, regulatory gaps, and market fragmentation, as some Member States have regulated or are considering new regulation in these areas.Continue Reading Help Shape the New EU Consumer Protection Law: Join the Public Consultation on the Digital Fairness Act

n June 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered important rulings clarifying the application of the EU Unfair Contract Terms Directive (UCTD), which protects consumers from unfair standard contract terms that have not been individually negotiated. The UCTD ensures such terms are transparent, clear, and balanced; unfair terms are not binding on consumers and may expose businesses to enforcement actions.

This blog post highlights four significant cases decided in June 2025. These cases involve preliminary references from national courts to the CJEU to clarify whether national laws are aligned with EU law.Continue Reading Overview of Key CJEU Rulings on EU Consumer Protection Law of June 2025

On June 26, 2025, the Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on modernizing the EU’s framework for alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in consumer matters.

The current ADR framework—established in Directive 2013/11/EU (ADR Directive)—has not been amended since its adoption in 2013. As noted in our previous blog, the European Commission recognized the need to modernize the system and, on October 17, 2023, proposed a legislative package to (i) amend the ADR Directive, and (ii) repeal the Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Regulation, which created the European Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Platform, on the basis that this platform was infrequently used. The ODR repeal regulation was formally adopted on November 19, 2024 and the ODR Platform will be discontinued on July 20, 2025. Since then, the focus has shifted to finalizing a reformed ADR framework.Continue Reading Council and Parliament Agree on Key Reforms to the EU ADR Framework

On 20 February, 2024, the Governments of the UK and Australia co-signed the UK-Australia Online Safety and Security Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”). The MoU seeks to serve as a framework for the two countries to jointly deliver concrete and coordinated online safety and security policy initiatives and outcomes to support their citizens, businesses and economies.

The MoU comes shortly after the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) introduced its guidance on content moderation and data protection (see our previous blog here) to complement the UK’s Online Safety Act 2023, and the commencement of the Australian online safety codes, which complement the Australian Online Safety Act 2021.

The scope of the MoU is broad, covering a range of policy areas, including: harmful online behaviour; age assurance; safety by design; online platforms; child safety; technology-facilitated gender-based violence; safety technology; online media and digital literacy; user privacy and freedom of expression; online child sexual exploitation and abuse; terrorist and violent extremist content; lawful access to data; encryption; misinformation and disinformation; and the impact of new, emerging and rapidly evolving technologies such as artificial intelligence (“AI”).Continue Reading UK and Australia Agree Enhanced Cross-Border Cooperation in Online Safety and Security

On October 3, 2023, an overwhelming majority of the European Parliament (“Parliament”) adopted its position on the EU Media Freedom Act (the “Act”), introducing a number of amendments to the text of the Act as proposed by the European Commission (the “Commission”).

The Commission’s proposal for a Regulation establishing a common framework for media services in the internal market (European Media Freedom Act) and amending Directive 2010/13/EU, published on September 16, 2022, aims, inter alia, to safeguard media independence and promote media pluralism across the EU, in addition to establishing specific requirements for Very Large Online Platforms (“VLOPs”) as defined under Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market For Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (the Digital Services Act).

This blog post summarizes some of the key developments resulting from Parliament’s proposed amendments in relation to: (i) requirements for VLOPs when removing content of media service providers from their platforms (Article 17); and (ii) the rights of media service providers (Article 4).

Takedown obligations for VLOPs (Article 17)

Building on the Commission’s original proposal, the position adopted by Parliament, if enacted into law, would impose a number of obligations on VLOPs when taking down content found to be in violation of the platform’s own terms and conditions. As a general rule, VLOPs will need to ensure that their content moderation systems do not negatively impact media freedom and pluralism. More specifically, VLOPs must:Continue Reading European Parliament Adopts its Position on the EU Media Freedom Act

On 29 March 2023, the UK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (“DCMS”) published the draft Media Bill (the “Bill”), which will deliver on a number of legislative reforms set out in the Government’s White Paper entitled “Up Next; the Government’s vision for the broadcasting sector”, published in April 2022.…

Continue Reading Evolving Regulatory Landscape for VoD Providers: UK Government Publishes Draft Media Bill