Brussels, 04/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, the European Commission decided to pursue infringement proceedings opened against Belgium and Denmark for their failure to implement in full the directive on rental and lending rights and on certain rights related to copyright, the provisions of which should have been transposed into national law before 1 July 1994.
Under the terms of the directive, authors and other rightholders have the exclusive right to authorise or prohibit the public lending of their works or other subject matter protected by rights related to copyright. Belgium's failure to transpose certain provisions of the directive has meant that no lending rights are paid there. As a result, the Internal Market is not working as intended and the damage suffered by rightholders of every nationality since 1994 has led the Commission to pursue infringement proceedings against Belgium, which has not so far put forward any solution to remedy this infringement.
The Commission has also decided to send a reasoned opinion to Denmark. The directive provides for performers, producers of films and phonograms, and broadcasters to have the exclusive right to allow the objects protected by their rights to be made available to the public. This so-called "distribution right" is not exhausted unless the first sale in the Community of that object is made by the rightholder or with his consent. Denmark provides for this distribution right only to be exercised if the object has been made ("fixed") with the European Economic Area (EEA). The result is that the distribution of such objects (such as CDs or videos) fixed outside the EEA escapes the control of the rightholders when they are placed into circulation in Denmark. Such a situation runs counter to the directive which explicitly stipulates that the distribution right shall not be exhausted except where the first sale is in the Community and nowhere else. Furthermore, this situation prevents the Internal Market from working as it should as the rightholders may invoke in other Member States the distribution right relating to objects from a non-EEA country imported into the EEA by Denmark and block the distribution of such objects. To date, no solution has been found with the Danish authorities to put an end to this failure to comply with Community legislation.
Unless Belgium and Denmark come up with a satisfactory response within two months, the Commission may decide to refer the matter to the Court of Justice.