Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

C 132/18 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 4.6.2002

**Notification of cooperation agreements**

**(Case COMP/C-2/38.377 — BIEM Barcelona Agreements)**

(2002/C 132/10)

**(Text with EEA relevance)**

1. On 28 February 2002 the Commission received a notification pursuant to Articles 2 and 4 of
Council Regulation No 17 of a standard bilateral agreement intended to be entered into between the
member collecting societies of the ‘Bureau international des sociétés gérant les droits d'enregistrement et de
reproduction mécanique (BIEM)’.

2. The notification concerns a standard bilateral agreement which amends the existing bilateral
reciprocal representation agreements between collecting societies in order to allow for the licensing of
mechanical reproduction rights for exploitation of the muscial compositions in their repertoire by electronic means, including the Internet. The agreement authorises each party to grant non-exclusive licences
for the online mechanical reproduction of the repertoire of the other party on a worldwide basis. Such
exploitation covers webcasting and on-demand transmission of music by acts of streaming or downloading.

3. As a rule, the licences will be granted:

(a) by the society operating in the country corresponding to the URL (uniform resource locator) used by
the content provider, where the primary language used at the site of the content provider is the
primary language of that country; or otherwise

(b) by the society operating in the country where the content provider is incorporated.

If the content provider has its economic residence in a different country from the countries set forth
above, the licence will be granted by the society operating in that country.

4. The notified agreement in this case mirrors for mechanical rights the agreement notified in case
COMP/C-2/38.126 — BUMA, GEMA, PRS, SACEM, which concerns public performance rights and in
respect of which the Commission published a notice inviting third parties to submit observations ( [1] ).

5. Upon preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified cooperation agreement could
fall within the scope of Regulation No 17.

6. The Commission invites interested third parties to submit any observations they may have on the
proposed operation.

7. Observations must reach the Commission not later than three weeks following the date of this
publication. Observations can be sent to the Commission by e-mail (Miguel.Mendes-Pereira@cec.eu.int),
by fax (No (32-2) 295 01 28) or by post under reference COMP/C-2/38.377 — BIEM Barcelona
Agreements to:

European Commission,
Directorate-General for Competition,
Antitrust Registry,
Office J-70 0/18,
B-1049 Brussels.

( [1] ) OJ C 145, 17.5.2001, p. 2.