Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2006:102
Date: 2006-02-14
Language of the case: French
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Right of establishment;Intellectual, industrial and commercial property;Approximation of laws;Freedom to provide services;Copyright and related rights
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Belgium

Summary of the Judgment Approximation of laws – Copyright and related rights – Directive 93/83 – Satellite broadcasting and cable retransmission (Council Directive 93/83, Art. 9(2)) Article 9(2) of Directive 93/83 on the coordination of certain rules concerning copyright and rights related to copyright applicable to satellite broadcasting and cable retransmission is to be interpreted as meaning that, where a collecting society is deemed to be mandated to manage the rights of a copyright owner or holder of related rights who has not transferred the management of his rights to a collecting society, that society has the power to exercise that rightholder’s right to grant or refuse authorisation to a cable operator for cable retransmission and, consequently, its mandate is not limited to management of the pecuniary aspects of those rights. However, that directive does not preclude assignment of the retransmission right, which may be made both on the basis of a contract and by virtue of a legal presumption, and thus does not prevent an author, artist, performer or producer from losing, pursuant to a national provision, his status of ‘rightholder’ of that right within the meaning of Article 9(2) of the directive, with the consequential severance of all legal links existing under that provision between him and the collecting society. (see paras 24-25, operative part)