Levies in EU copyright law: an overview of the CJEU’s judgments on the fair compensation of private copying and reprography

Extract

...

Introduction

On 27 February 2014 the European Parliament adopted a Resolution on private copying levies,¹ calling on the Commission to submit a proposal of revision of Directive 2001/29 to set up a ‘virtuous system’ of private copying levies.² Considering that ‘all European consumers should have the right to make private copies of legally acquired content’ (nº 2), the European Parliament found it necessary to harmonize the essential elements of the levy system, notably the concept of fair compensation and the concept of harm to authors resulting from private copying (Recital G). In reply, the European Commission stated that it would ‘assess the need for action to ensure that, when Member States impose levies for private copying and reprography to compensate right holders, their different systems work well in the single market and do not raise barriers to the free movement of goods and services’.³

The Commission had already received recommendations concerning the revision of the levy system, including a ‘uniform’ definition of harm by reference to the value for consumers of private copying as ‘lost profit’ (nº 1).⁴ An active NGO on this sector has also advocated a ‘comprehensive reform’ of compensation for private copying based upon the notion of ‘actual and demonstrable harm’.⁵ Meanwhile, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has also issued a number of judgments on this topic.⁶