France will provide young people with heavily subsidised cards which they can use to buy music online in an attempt to stop them downloading unlicensed copies of music.
Its 'carte musique' scheme will enable people between the ages of 12 and 25 to buy cards with €50 of music credit on them for €25. The French state will pay the other €25. The two year scheme allows each young person to buy one card a year.
The European Commission enforces rules on state aid to ensure that governments do not unduly distort markets and undermine market competition when they provide aid to certain industries.
"The measure responds to concerns that the increasing volume of online music distributed in breach of copyright rules might drive legal music distribution platforms out of the market. It aims at developing the habit for consumers; when they are still young, to use legal music distribution channels over the Internet," said a statement from the European Commission.
"The measure requires website operators to contribute to the scheme through a reduction in the price of the music, an extension of the duration of the subscription and/or a contribution to the cost of advertising the card," it said. "It caps the benefit each operator may draw from the scheme at €5 million, with the purpose of ensuring that independent and niche operators are also able to benefit from the scheme."
"As a result, the scheme will contribute to preserving pluralism and cultural diversity in the online music industry. The Commission therefore concluded that the benefits of the measure would outweigh any potential distortions of competition that might be brought about by the aid," said the statement.
"The Commission found the measure to be in line with EU rules allowing the fostering of general interest goals. In particular, the measure is well designed to achieve its objective, is limited in time and scope and contains safeguards to limit potential distortions of competition," said the statement approving the measure.
