In Austria, the Supreme Court (OGH) has now also ruled that cloud storage falls under the copyright levy system. This means that all court instances have been gone through and the matter has been finally decided. Providers now have no choice but to include the corresponding levies in their service packages, report regularly to the relevant authorities, and pay the levies.

The legal dispute centred on whether fair remuneration also applies to the storage of copyright-protected content in the cloud. As in almost all other European countries, devices such as smartphones, tablets and computers, and storage media such as USB sticks and hard drives, have been subject to levies in Austria to date. Nevertheless, it remains questionable whether the legal requirements also extend to cloud storage.

Of course, in a more fundamental and therefore abstract way, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) already clarified this in 2022: storage in the cloud should be compensated under copyright law. This is because the legally permissible copying of protected content by private individuals requires appropriate remuneration. However, this remuneration would not be levied for cloud storage, which is demonstrably being used increasingly, if only local physical storage were considered. Therefore, Member States that allow private copying must also ensure appropriate remuneration.

In Germany, the discussion focuses on the wording of the law. It links the levy obligation to devices – and these are already subject to the levy. Ultimately, however, it will depend on actual user behaviour when making private copies. This means that cloud storage cannot be ignored in the medium term.

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