Agreement on copyright levies for consumer electronics Fees up to 12 euros per device

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Bitkom calls for a completely new remuneration system
The digital association Bitkom, together with the Central Association of Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers and the collecting societies, has agreed on the level of copyright fees for consumer electronics . Manufacturers and importers pay 12 euros per TV set with hard disk storage. The same high fees apply to DVD recorders and set-top boxes equipped with hard disks.

TV sets and set-top boxes without an integrated hard drive but with a recording function each cost 1.25 euros. Bitkom members who join the overall contract are entitled to a 20 percent reduced rate. Other device categories in the overall contract include MP3 and MP4 players, video recorders, CD recorders, mini-disc recorders, cassette recorders and DVD recorders without integrated hard drives. "After long negotiations, companies now have legal certainty and are spared from excessive demands," says Bitkom CEO Dr. Bernhard Rohleder.

Originally, the collecting societies had demanded up to 49 euros for DVD recorders with hard drives, 34 euros for TV sets and set-top boxes with hard drives, and 13 euros each for TV sets and set-top boxes without an integrated hard drive. "Not only the companies benefit from the agreement, but above all the consumers," said Rohleder. The contracts for the fees apply retroactively to January 1, 2008.

The copyright levies are intended to compensate for the legal copying of canada gambling data copyrighted content such as music, film, photos or text for private use. The flat-rate levies are due on devices such as computers , smartphones, copiers, printers, etc. as well as on storage media such as USB sticks and blank CDs. Manufacturers and importers are obliged to include the levies in their prices and thus indirectly charge consumers for private copying . Collecting societies such as Gema, VG Wort or GVL are responsible for collecting and distributing the levies to authors.

Although Bitkom expressly welcomes the agreement, it has been criticising the system of flat-rate fees on devices for years as fundamentally unsuitable for the digital world. "In this form, copyright fees are anything but up-to-date. More and more products with ever shorter innovation cycles are affected. At the same time, user behaviour is dramatically different than it was 50 years ago," says Rohleder.

Separate negotiations have to be conducted for each new product for which collecting societies demand royalties. This causes high administrative costs and permanent legal and planning uncertainty for all parties involved. "In the end, consumers bear the costs. For them, the entire system is completely unknown or at least non-transparent. Nowadays, users stream music and films. The days when cassettes were recorded or music was burned onto CDs are long gone; hardly anyone makes private copies anymore."

From Bitkom's point of view, the flat-rate tax system should be abolished and replaced by remuneration models that correspond to the practice of the digital world. Rohleder: "We welcome the fact that the federal government has decided in its coalition agreement to completely reorganize the remuneration system." A fund model such as that used in some Scandinavian countries is conceivable.