The ruling was requested by the court of appeal (Dutch: hof van beroep) of Brussels (Belgium) in a case of Vlaams Belang politician Johan Deckmyn who had copied a cover of Spike and Suzy (Dutch: Suske en Wiske), in which he had positioned Daniël Termont, the mayor of Ghent.

On 9 January 2011, during the New Year's reception of the city of Ghent, the Flemish nationalist political party Vlaams Belang handed out 2000 calendars with a cover largely copied from the cover of the 1961 Spike and Suzy comic De Wilde Weldoener (the Wild Benefactor).

[2] Vlaams Belang politician Deckmyn said he wanted to highlight that in Ghent tax payer's money was mainly channelled to non-Ghent people, reducing the quality of life in the city as a whole.

[3] The civil division of the tribunal of first instance of Brussels ruled on 17 February in a preliminary injunction on the action that VanderSteen c.s.

The vzw Vrijheidsfonds (the association collecting gifts for Vlaams Belang) and Deckmyn were not to distribute the calendars.

In its preliminary decision the 8th Chamber of the Court merged both cases, and ruled that the calendar depicted a discriminating message.

[7] The court largely followed the position of the Advocate-General: regarding the first question, the term "parody" is an independent concept, as its definition was not explicitly left to the national law.