As in all previous years, many tariffs and other regulations for copyright levies changed at the turn of the year.
Some changes, on the other hand, come at the last minute, i.e. in the final days of the year. One of these is the complete revision of all levies in Hungary. After a long interruption, all levies there have been increased, albeit to varying degrees. This means that the increase in levies for some products and for lower capacities is moderate. This also applies to the new tariffs for smartphones, PCs and tablets. However, more powerful MP3 players, for example, were raised by more than 300 Hungarian forints, which is just under one euro.
Many companies monitor all tariffs continuously because their originally intended duration can end automatically. This applies to legal stipulations as well as to contractual agreements such as those in Germany. In some cases, they may continue to apply tacitly or in the absence of an objection and subsequent renegotiation, as is common in Switzerland. In recent weeks, special attention has also been paid to a supreme court ruling in France, by the Conseil d'État. At first glance, it abolished the levies for refurbished products. In fact, however, the levies were not abolished at all, they were not even fundamentally questioned. So there was no termination or interruption of the levy obligations to be expected. Only a formal error in the determination of the levies was admonished and was to be corrected.
Further changes in copyright levies in 2023 are not only to be expected in the levy levels for (new) devices and storage media. Also in the case of levies for refurbished products or for online storage, important decisions are to be expected in many countries in the near future.
Contact us with questions: copyright@1cc-consulting.com