Update
30.09.2024
By its decision of 26 September 2024, the Constitutional Court referred 13 questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for a preliminary ruling in an annulment action brought by Meta (Facebook), Google and others, challenging the Belgian Act transposing Directive (EU) 2019/790 of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market.

NautaDutilh is advising certain rights holders in their support of the Act.

As outlined in our previous update on the Act, the Directive requires that rights holders receive appropriate and proportionate remuneration, as well as timely and comprehensible information regarding the exploitation of their works.

The Belgian legislator has gone further by mandating that online platforms enter into licensing agreements with press publishers. The Act also empowers an administrative authority, the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications (BIPT), to impose remuneration where platforms and press publishers fail to reach an agreement. Additionally, the Act establishes a mandatory right to remuneration for authors and performers, managed collectively through Collective Management Societies (such as Sabam), to be paid by platforms disseminating their works online, including streaming services.

The questions referred to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling concern the compatibility of this regime with the Directive. Central to this is the obligation to remunerate press publishers and provide them with information, irrespective of whether press publications are uploaded by the publishers themselves, whether such publications are protected by copyright or accessible in full or in part, or whether the publishers already receive revenues. The confidentiality of the exchanged information is also under scrutiny. Platforms contend that they are being subjected to an unlawful 'monitoring obligation'.

Further significant questions arise as to whether the mandatory right to remuneration for authors and performers is compatible with the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the notification procedures to the European Commission, particularly where platforms have already obtained authorisation from other rights holders (e.g., producers) for using their works.

The decision is available here in French and Dutch.

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