German supplier can no longer deliver CDs and DVDs without paying private copying levy

In a lawsuit between the Dutch foundation Thuiskopie against the German Q-Supply, the court in The Hague ruled in favour of foundation Thuiskopie. The supplier may no longer provide CDs and DVDs to Dutch customers if the company does not pay the required private copying levy.

Q-supply delivered blank media formats through various websites of BigDennis and Ddvd.nl without paying the private copying levy. Now, the judge has forbidden Q-Supply to deliver the media formats without paying the levy, under penalty of 250 euros per delivered blank media format or ten thousand euros per day, with a maximum of one million euros. In addition, Q-Supply must hand over its administration to foundation Thuiskopie, so Thuiskopie discovers what kind of and how many CDs and DVDs are delivered to Dutch customers in order to determine how much compensation is required for the private copying levy on the delivered CDs and DVDs.

Following the Opus lawsuit, several suppliers were contacted by foundation Thuiskopie to start paying the private copying levy. In the Opus lawsuit, the European Court states that all commercial suppliers who deliver from European countries must pay the Dutch private copying levy on CDs and DVDs.

In Europe there already have been lawsuits on private copying levies. A Spanish court asked the European Court of Justice questions relating to compensation through the private copying levy. The conclusion of the AG in this case was the following: European countries are only authorized to compensate through the private copying levy, in case there is coherence between the charge and the right to financial compensation. A presumption should exist that the respective carriers actually are used to make private copies.

Furthermore, in another case a preliminary question was asked by a German Court on whether the private copying levy should be paid when someone already legally purchased the content and wished to copy this content. Firstly, someone has paid for the work when they purchase it and secondly they pay for the private copying levy is on CDs and DVDs. This could result in double compensations.

Conclusion: there are many debates on the private copying levy. Time will tell if the private copying levy will exit or will stay.

The Dutch court ruling can be read here.

Reference: Tweakers

By: Karen Groen