Court of Justice confirms application of abuse of dominance rules in copyright licensing cases

 Court of Justice confirms application of abuse of dominance rules in copyright licensing cases

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has given a preliminary ruling on the issue of whether a remuneration model applied by SABAM, a copyright management company, amounts to an abuse of a dominant position under Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

SABAM adopted ‘Tariff 211’ which allowed it to charge a fee based on the revenue of the event holders’ ticket sales. 

The ECJ ruled that it is for the referring court to assess whether the application of the tariff system at issue, here Tariff 211, in so far as it authorises only certain costs to be deducted from these amounts, is likely to impose unfair prices.

It was for the referring court to assess whether there are methods which make it possible to identify with greater precision the musical works protected by SABAM.

It is not necessarily an abuse of dominance for a copyright management company to calculate its tariffs based on the revenue that music event organisers receive from ticket sales.

SABAM v Weareone.World BVBA and Wecandance NV (Case C-372/19), ECLI:EU:C:2020:959