The decision of the Court of Appeal is final and not appealable. It finally confirms that the rates requested by the collective management organizations for playing works in, among other things, hotel rooms, are justified.

The tables prepared by 8 collective management organizations, including the SFP-ZAPA, were approved by the Copyright Commission as soon as in July 2013. The Chairman of the Committee’s adjudicating panel, counsel Rafal SARBIŃSKI, PhD, assessed then the joint tables of the collective management organizations as the value in itself, aimed at establishing order in the market. He also pointed to a very good structure of the tables. But the IGHP, representing some of hospitality facilities in Poland, dissatisfied with the decision, brought an appeal to a Court in Poznań concerning part of the tables.
In the course of the proceedings, the Court appointed an expert witness who issued opinions in principle favourable for the collective management organizations. The expert witness noted that the resultant amount of total charges payable from entities using works or objects of related rights to the collective management organizations stood at levels similar to comparable markets within the EU.

“This is just another table of rates of remuneration for right holders represented by the SFP-ZAPA approved lawfully recently. After the rate of 2.2 percent for retransmission of audiovisual works was finally conformed in 2018, the authors have now succeeded in the field of public performance. And even if the decision of the Copyright Commission was issued in 2013, it took 7 years before the courts of law finally approved the rates. But I am still very happy that after all those years of court battles, the authors will finally be receiving fair remuneration from hotels. I hope that we will see soon a ruling that approves the tables of remuneration for films screened by cinemas,” said Jacek BROMSKI, President of the Polish Filmmakers Association.

“The lawfully approved table is the best gift for the SFP-ZAPA, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. This court ruling confirms the stubbornness and effectiveness of the organization in the area of protection of authors’ rights. The remuneration tables, which were first accepted by arbitrators of the Copyright Commission, who are experts in the field of copyright and related rights, and then were approved by the courts of law of both instances, give the collective management organizations a strong mandate to enforce remuneration owed to authors. The legal environment, as changed by the Act on the collective management of copyrights adopted in June 2018, and now the tables, are an opportunity to update the contractual relationships with hotels. I hope we will also be able to build strong partnership relations with them for many years to come” – this is how the ruling of the Court of Appeal was commented by Dominik SKOCZEK, Managing Director of the SFP-ZAPA.