abuse of a dominant position Archives

Collective rights management and abuse of dominance: Court of appeal of Brussels applies the CJEU principles in a major Belgian festival case

Sari Depreeuw (Crowell & Moring LLP and UCLouvain - Saint Louis Bruxelles) and Sander Vogt (Crowell & Moring, Brussels)/April 27, 2023May 10, 2023 /Leave a comment

Background On 8 September 2022, the Brussels court of appeal delivered a long-awaited judgment in a case between the collective management organisation “Belgian Association of Authors, Composers and Publishers” (“SABAM”) and a wide array of music festival organisers in Belgium, the overarching Federation of Music Festivals in Flanders (“FMFF”) and British direct licensing company Pace…

Case Law, Collective management, Remedies, Spain

Spain: AGEDI-AEI RADIO, National Markets and Competition Commission, Expediente S/0500/13, 26 November 2015

Pablo Hernández/May 13, 2016May 13, 2016 /Leave a comment

On 26 November 2015, the Spanish competition authority imposed a new fine on Spanish collecting societies. Two organisations were affected, the society that represents record companies (AGEDI) and the society representing music performers (AIE), who operate in their respective sectors without competition. In the opinion of the Spanish Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), the two…

Case Law, Collective management, Remuneration (equitable), Spain

New fine imposed by the Spanish competition authority on national collecting societies

Pablo Hernández/May 6, 2016May 10, 2023 /Leave a comment

On 26 November 2015, the Spanish competition authority imposed a new fine on Spanish collecting societies. This time two organisations were affected, namely, the society that represents record companies (AGEDI) and the society representing music performers (AIE), who operate in their respective sectors without competition. In the opinion of the Spanish Markets and Competition Commission…

Case Law, Collective management, Remedies, Spain

Spain: Competition and limitations on Collecting Societies safeguarding independence from users

Pablo Hernández/November 17, 2015May 10, 2023 /Leave a comment

Introduction The SGAE case recently resolved by the Spanish Competition Authority ended in a settlement agreement, as we previously reported . As we indicated in that article, this case did not just examine relations between the collecting society and users regarding the establishment of licensing terms and conditions. The initial analysis also tackled the complex…

Case Law, Collective management, Latvia, Remedies

Latvia: Abuse of a dominant position III, Regional Administrative Court of Latvia, A43012613, A43-0051-15/4, 9 February 2015

Magda Papēde (Albert Ludwig University, Freiburg)/October 16, 2015May 10, 2023 /Leave a comment

When considering whether a collective management organisation had abused its dominant position by imposing unreasonably high licence fees, it was justifiable to compare its fees with the fees in other markets. These markets should be comparable to the Latvian market in order to achieve the correct outcome. As well as having a similar gross domestic…

Case Law, Collective management, Remedies, Spain

A remarkable case of the Spanish competition authority vs. the collecting society SGAE, settled without penalty.

Pablo Hernández/October 8, 2015November 17, 2015 /Leave a comment

Introduction 9 July 2015 saw the resolution of the umpteenth case involving Spain’s National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) versus a Spanish collecting society (judgment here). On this occasion, the society was SGAE, responsible for managing music copyright. The proceedings examined a complaint made by various composers regarding the measures that the society had…