Private copying compensation: European Creators under attack from Apple, Huawei, Samsung
European creators’ organisations and unions urge the EU decision-makers to support European interests and take a firm stand against aggressive lobbying by device manufacturers to weaken EU legislation providing for private copying compensation.
The system that compensates creators for the private copying exception existing in most European countries has contributed to their remuneration and the funding of European creation for decades.
Today, manufacturers of electronic devices through their trade organisation in Europe (Digital Europe) are aggressively attacking this long-standing practice and formulating unacceptable proposals to deprive creators from their rightful compensation.
Apple, Huawei, LG, Samsung and Xiaomi are the biggest selling brands of mobile devices in Europe in 2018. None of them are European companies.
Market research has shown time and again, that prices of devices are not impacted by the application of private copy compensation schemes. A smartphone might be more expensive in the UK where there is no private copy remuneration (because UK law does not have a private copying exception) than in France, where there is long-established and well-functioning compensation scheme.
Companies from China, South Korea and the US, under the name of Digital Europe, are asking to change EU law so that they should not have to contribute, as is currently the case, to the remuneration of creators and creativity in Europe, with no perspective of benefitting EU consumers and with a single purpose: maximising their profits by not paying for private copy compensation and by keeping their prices the same, if not higher!
Organisations and unions representing creators in Europe urge the European Commission and the Members of the European Parliament to reject these outrageous demands with determination and to defend European interests in this high economic value sector.