#62023CJ0797EU Court allows national fair-payment rules for online use of press publications
AI-generated summary for informational purposes only. Not legal advice. See the original source for the authoritative text.
This judgment supports national rules that require online platforms and other information society services to pay press publishers fair compensation when they use press publications online. It confirms that EU copyright law can allow extra national mechanisms to make the publisher right work in practice, including negotiation duties, data-sharing duties, and regulator involvement. The decision matters for large platforms, news aggregators, media monitoring services, publishers, and copyright managers. Platforms may need stronger licensing processes, clearer revenue and traffic data, and a plan for regulator-led disputes where negotiations with publishers fail.
AI-generated summary. May contain errors. Refer to official sources for legal decisions.
Key Changes
- National laws may require online services to pay fair compensation to press publishers for online use of press publications.
- Platforms can be required to negotiate with publishers and provide data needed to calculate compensation.
- An independent regulator may set compensation criteria, supervise compliance, impose penalties, and intervene when negotiations fail.
Obligations
What this law requires
The Court judgment concerns whether Article 15 of Directive (EU) 2019/790 permits Member States to support press publishers’ neighbouring right for online uses by information society service providers through mechanisms such as fair compensation, negotiation criteria, information duties, and regulatory dispute resolution.
Article 15(1) of Directive (EU) 2019/790 requires Member States to give press publishers established in a Member State reproduction and making-available rights for online use of their press publications by information society service providers.
Article 15 protection does not apply to private or non-commercial uses by individual users, acts of hyperlinking, or the use of individual words or very short extracts of a press publication.
Article 15(2) provides that press publishers’ rights must not affect authors’ and other rightholders’ EU-law rights in works incorporated in press publications and must not deprive those authors or rightholders of independent exploitation rights.
Article 15(4) provides that press publishers’ rights expire two years after publication, calculated from 1 January of the year following publication, and do not apply to press publications first published before 6 June 2019.