TMC - Technology, Media & Communications
Future facing legal experts guiding TMC businesses through digital transformation challenges
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Unlocking business opportunities – and revealing problems
The development of connectivity and digital technologies has generated immense benefits and possibilities for individuals. However, it has also raised critical issues that may seriously affect human and privacy rights. Accordingly, governments, multinational entities and global organisations have placed these topics at the heart of their agendas. CMS is here to help you navigate the landscape.
Transforming businesses and disrupting industries
As industries converge and new ones emerge, a wide range of stakeholders in technology, media and communications (TMC) – from users, financiers and investors to business owners and regulators – must urgently understand how digital transformation brings commercial opportunities and redefines conventional business and social structures. With the deployment of 5G networks and the Internet of Things (IoT), these opportunities are set to increase exponentially.
Protecting and exploiting data
Interacting with digital technologies generates a huge amount of data. This can be quickly processed, giving the data holder significant abilities to assess and predict behaviours of broad or segmented groups and individuals. CMS advises on the full spectrum of data privacy – from compliance and 24/7 cyber breach response, to defending against regulators and class actions. We offer a number of tools like the Breach Assistant app and Enforcement Tracker of fines issued under the GDPR.
Thanks to a diverse range of clients and our career backgrounds, CMS has looked at and advised on issues from every angle, across our practice groups.
Please reach out to any of our Technology, Media and Communications lawyers should you have an issue to explore.
TMC plus
With TMC experts across every specialism of law, our full-service ranges from navigating data breaches to negotiating commercial agreements and mitigating disputes. We can help monetise your intellectual property and protect your brand and reputation just as much as we can help you negotiate a multi-billion euro deal or assist on employment issues. We also provide specialist M&A services and advise on restructuring to make your business fit for the future.
We have a history of being part of the regulatory dialogue on issues such as network sharing, GDPR, the Copyright Directive and artificial intelligence. We continue to advise on emerging ethical, legal and regulatory challenges sparked by new and maturing technologies.
CMS has assembled one of the strongest teams in the market, who understand how businesses are impacted by the digital economy. We are lawyers, litigators, former regulators, economists, coders and inventors, with the technical and commercial skill necessary to deliver your most strategic projects.
Many of our lawyers have worked in-house for companies including HP Enterprises, Deutsche Telekom, Liberty Global, Vodafone and Orange, and for governments.
Becoming embedded in the TMC sector starts at the very beginning of a CMS lawyer’s career: our junior lawyers spend time on client secondments, giving them early exposure to the commercial dynamics our clients face.
Whether you’re a TMC company or an end user, a financier or an investor, a regulator or a government, our advice to you will always cover all the angles, combining technical expertise with hands-on experience and a complete commercial outlook. We are able to do this because of the breadth of our client base in the TMC sector.
Digital Regulation Tracker
To help you navigate the tsunami of digital regulations in the EU and in the world, visit our digital regulation hub and brand new digital Regulation Tracker tool
Our TMC expertise includes key specialisms such as:
Legal experts for TMC - Technology, Media & Communications
Highlighted experience
Case studies
CMS advised infrastructure specialist Macquarie Capital as the main investor together with Daiwa Energy & Infrastructure and Aberdeen Standard Investments, on the acquisition of a majority stake in the fibre optic network owned by MásMóvil in rural areas, which will cover more than 1.1 million Spanish households once rolled out, and the financing of that acquisition.
The neutral host rural network will be managed by Onivia, the independent network operator created by Macquarie, Daiwa and Aberdeen in 2020. The acquisition allows Onivia to have a national presence and completes its current coverage in the urban areas of Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Barcelona and Málaga. The transaction takes place in a context in which the presence of optic fibre in rural areas is especially relevant, given the growing number of people working remotely in these areas as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This transaction cements Onivia’s position as the largest independent FTTH wholesaler in Spain, now with a genuinely national presence, and a good balance between the key urban centres and more rural communities throughout the country. These transactions were complex to execute, creating an infrastructure business, and all the agreements that need to go along with that, where one didn’t previously exist, but we’ve been delighted with the impact Onivia has had in a relatively short time.
Oliver Bradley, Managing Director, Digital Infrastructure Investing at Macquarie
Microsoft’s cloud services business model was under threat in 2018. Millions of Office 365 subscriptions were being pirated and resold online. Microsoft’s EMEA Digital Crimes Unit needed to act quickly.
CMS took an innovative approach to attacking the pirates. We created a single claim that was effective across 28 territories, devising a single set of documentation to support rapid and simultaneous deployment.
This was Microsoft’s first such enforcement programme to protect its cloud customers. It led to 60 actions in 17 countries in two months. Microsoft and CMS teams across Europe used Microsoft Teams software to coordinate and control activity, sharing information instantly and without duplication.
The highly successful project is now a model for combatting identity theft and piracy.
TMC - Technology, Media & Communications Insights
Local market knowledge. Global outlook
We provide future-facing legal advice to help your organisation thrive. Combining local market knowledge and a global perspective, and with lawyers in locations worldwide, your organisation benefits from the expertise it needs, even across borders.
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