The Commission has sent a Statement of Objections to CISAC and
the national collecting societies in the European Economic Area
that are members of CISAC.
Collecting societies act as trustees on behalf of their members
(here, authors of musical works). The CISAC-member collecting
societies manage copyright and grant exploitation licences on
behalf of their members for all types of music broadcasting – in
bars, nightclubs or via the internet.
At issue is the CISAC model contract, which details how members
will carry out this collective management of copyright. CISAC
members follow the model in creating bilateral agreements, known as
reciprocal representation contracts, with other CISAC members.
The Statement of Objections (SO) does not relate to the entire
model contract and its bilateral implementations; it is not
concerned with traditional forms of copyright exploitation.
Instead, the SO covers only some relatively new types of
exploitation – the internet, satellite transmission and cable
retransmission of music.
Here, says the Commission, the agreements might breach
competition law because they require authors to transfer their
rights only to their own national collecting society. The
agreements also oblige commercial users to obtain a license (which
is limited to the domestic territory) only from the domestic
collecting society.
Taken together, these restrictions effectively give national
collecting societies a monopoly, says the Commission.
CISAC and the collecting societies now have two-and-a-half
months to reply to the Commission's objections. They can also
request a hearing at which they would be able to submit their
arguments directly to the representatives of the national
competition authorities.
