Revival of the French Private Copy Commission activities

More than a year ago, the activities of the Private Copy Commission, discussing and deciding any copyright levy matter in France, were interrupted by the withdrawal of the industry representatives. Regardless of this, all provisions and levy amounts remained in force. On the initiative of the Ministry of Culture this situation is to be terminated now: thorough substantive and organizational preparations including preliminary talks with the Commission members will be completed in June, so that a next meeting date can be set in September.

This is deemed necessary, among others, because six previous decisions of the Private Copy Commission had been suspended by court ruling recently. The most recent being decision No 13 in June 2014. As each decision is valid until the release of the next, the basis for past payments is in question. This applies, to emphasise again, only in respect of the past. The Conseil d’État, the French Supreme Court for Administrative Justice, confirmed the latest two decisions of the Private Copy Commission towards the end of November 2014. Thus, the current product lists, tariff calculations and tariff amounts provided by 1cc to its clients remain valid. Concerning the suspension of the above mentioned decisions: Décision n° 7-11, 2007-2008 and n° 13, 2012, it is possible that past levies paid will have to be refunded in some way. This, however, is an open issue and will likely remain for the time being.

Due to the currently complicated levy situation in France, there is uncertainty with respect to the current state of affairs: We would like to point out that all daily compliance activities are to be maintained, and that 1cc will keep you updated on all changes to be reflected in the reporting efforts.