CJEU Ruling Narrows Scope of Applying Private Copying Levies to Devices

摘要

Manufacturers of computers, smartphones and other products with storage or memory capacity cited progress in their drive to eliminate arbitrary copying levies they must pay collecting societies representing copyright holders after a Court of Justice of the European Union ruling narrowed the conditions under which the fees are necessary (Copydan Bandkopi v. Nokia Danmark A/S (Case C-463/12)). In a case relating to a legal dispute between the Danish collection society Copydan and the phone manufacturing arm of Nokia Oyk, the CJEU said EU copyright law (EEC/2001/29) does not preclude national laws imposing the copying levies, but if the harm caused by storage capacity in a smartphone is minimal, then "such a function need not give rise to an obligation to pay fair compensation."