Decision of the Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) 21 July 2016 - Case No. I ZR 212/14

摘要

The remuneration payable under Sec. 54(1) of the Copyright Act by the manufacturers for devices and storage media of the type used to make reproductions within the meaning of Sec. 53(1) to (3) of the Copyright Act has an inequitable effect on the manufacturers of such devices in the sense of Sec. 54a(4) of the Copyright Act when considerable numbers of potential users purchase such devices or storage media not within the country but outside it because they are offered there for a lower price, and when this lower price is based on the fact that other countries charge no remuneration on devices and storage media, or a lower remuneration than in Germany. An inequitable effect on the manufacturers of devices or storage media - independent of the purchase of such devices or storage media by potential users outside Germany - is present even when the manufacturers cannot incorporate the remuneration in its entirety into the price of the devices and storage media and thus pass it on to their users, because otherwise a considerable number of users interested in purchasing such devices or storage media would refrain from doing so due to the fact that the remuneration does not have an economically equitable relationship to the price level of the device or storage medium [citation omitted].