Brussels, 31/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - European Commissioner for the Internal Market Michel Barnier would like greater harmonisation in private copying and reprography levies. On Thursday 31 January, the Commissioner received the recommendations of former Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs Antonio Vitorino who was charged with investigating the possibilities in November 2011. Following on from the communication of May 2011 on copyright in the single market, the former Portuguese commissioner was given the task of mediating on the question of private copying levies. A little over a year later and after much consultation, he submitted a series of recommendations. In a press release, the Commission says that Vitorino puts great emphasis on the need to foster increased reliance on licences and contractual arrangements as the best way to ensure that right holders are properly remunerated for their creative efforts and investments. He also recommended measures to make current, often very disparate, national levy systems, more compatible, Barnier said.
Private copying and reprography levies (exceptions exist in around 20 countries) consist of a tax on all digital and multimedia equipment that is then paid to creators, artists and producers. Barnier highlighted the differences that exist, with the levy on blank DVDs in France, for example, being €1, in Denmark €0.48 and in Germany €0.0139, while in some countries there is no levy at all.
Vitorino initially adopted a cautious approach, waiting for the outcome of several cases being heard in the European Court of Justice, he said. He proposed two kinds of recommendations to the Commissioner in an effort to bring some kind of order across the EU. The first recommendations relate to the various economic models and the second the way in which levy systems are operated and ways of making them more compatible with the internal market. In the first part, the report says, Vitorino would like to clarify the fact “that copies that are made by end-users for private purposes in the context of a service that has been licensed do not cause any harm that would require additional remuneration in the form of levies”. In the second part of the recommendations, Vitorino proposes a common definition of this type of damages and losses. He advocates that, in cases of cross-border transactions, levies be collected in the member state in which the final customer resides, that retailers rather than manufacturers and importers be responsible for collecting this levy and that this levy be made more transparent for final users. The subject is as complex as it is sensitive. The companies responsible for collecting authors' royalties nationally have been or will be accused by the manufacturers of, for example, introducing tariffs that lack transparency and the beneficiaries will want defend this levy system for private copy. On Thursday, Vitorino acknowledged as much and said that they would need more time and work to get everyone's agreement. (SP/transl.fl)