LEADING EU MEMBER STATES CALL ON THE EC TO TAKE ACTION ON EUROPEAN COURT RULING THAT UNDERMINES BROADCASTING AND PUBLIC PERFORMANCE REVENUE TO TUNE OF €125m A YEAR
Brussels, 18 December 2024
At the end of last week, Ministers from six EU member states (The Netherlands, France, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Belgium) addressed a joint letter to Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice President of the European Commission, calling for a legislative proposal to fix the consequences of the EU court’s “RAAP” ruling.
IMPALA welcomes this initiative, which echoes similar and regular calls made by European music producers and musicians over the four years since the RAAP judgment was delivered. The latest of these sector calls was made earlier this year ahead of the European elections.
IMPALA’s Executive Chair Helen Smith, commented: “It’s great to see Ministers from six European countries, home to leading music markets, join forces to reiterate their call on the European Commission to come forward with legislation to address the dire consequences of the RAAP ruling on European music performers and producers. With the new European Commission having taken office earlier this month, action is needed now. It’s been over four years since the judgment has been delivered and we cannot afford further delays: a clear answer is needed now to restore legal certainty and EU sovereignty and safeguard the interests of European artists and labels.”
Helen Smith continued: “The impact of inaction is well documented, with an estimated transfer of payments from the EU to third countries between €1.25bn and €1.5bn over the next ten years. The absence of a clear response also means that the EU and its member states lose any trade leverage with countries like the USA who continue to deny protection both to their own and European artists and labels when their music is played on terrestrial radio and in public, depriving the music sector of hundreds of millions of dollars every year. It’s very telling that the three countries who have changed (Netherlands, Denmark), or announced they would change (Sweden), their rules in light of the RAAP judgment are signatories of this letter and have all made it very clear on several instances that they see the consequences of the ruling as highly problematic and that they would continue fighting tooth and nail for the European Commission to address this. As the Ministers’ letter rightly points out, the EU Court of Justice itself stated in its ruling that it is up to the EU legislature to change the current situation.”
Helen Smith concluded: “The way forward is clear – confirming the principle of reciprocity, which helps increase the level of protection worldwide by encouraging third countries to align with the EU’s standards. This needs to be restored urgently through legislation which achieves proportionate harmonisation, also allowing countries which already operated a different system such as national treatment to continue. The fact that a second and more recent EU ruling, the “Kwantum” judgment – which the Ministers’ letter also mentions – further undermines the EU’s trade bargaining power, only reinforces the need for the European Commission to address these questions urgently. We await Commissioner Virkkunen’s response to the Ministers’ letter and to the European recorded music sector’s plea to take action. Ultimately, we also look to the EU to apply trade pressure on the USA to implement its own domestic protections before trying to hoover up everyone else’s collections.”
About IMPALA
IMPALA was established in 2000 and now represents over 6000 independent music companies in Europe. 99% of Europe’s music companies are small, micro and medium businesses and self-releasing artists. Known as the independents, they are world leaders in terms of innovation and discovering new music and artists – they produce more than 80% of all new releases and account for 80% of the sector’s jobs. IMPALA’s mission is to grow the independent music sector sustainably, return more value to artists, promote diversity and entrepreneurship, improve political access, inspire change, and increase access to finance. IMPALA works on a range of key issues for its members, runs various award schemes and has a programme aimed at businesses who want to develop a strategic relationship with the European independent sector – Friends of IMPALA.
