Around forty French and foreign refurbishers are being prosecuted in France because of copyright levy obligations on refurbished devices. Those companies had been initially approached and asked to submit their figures for all devices sold in France. The claims being made against them range from several hundred thousands to several million euros. More remarkable than the anticipated sum of levies is the long retrospective period deemed valid .
Three providers have now objected to ongoing proceedings: The German provider Handydortmund.de, the French providers WeFix.fr and Smaaart.fr are disputing the legal basis for levy obligations for the period prior to 2021. Despite a clear legal foundation for claims made for the period after that, they have put forward familiar fundamental arguments against the levy demands made. These mainly relate to the multiple charges for one and the same device – once upon its placement on the market as a new device and then again (theoretically even several times) as a refurbished product.
This confirms in practice what we had already published in a previous blog in 2023: The obligation to pay a levy on professionally inspected, cleaned, repaired (if necessary) and then resold used devices is not a novelty. It has either always existed or goes back much longer than the current discussion makes it appear.