The European Commission decided to refer Poland to the Court of Justice of the EU for failure to notify complete transposition (partial non-transposition) of EU rules on collective management of copyright and related rights, and multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online use (Directive 2014/26/EU) into national law. The Commission called on the Court to impose financial penalty to Poland – € 87 612.00 per day. Member States had to transpose the Directive into national law by 10 April 2016.
Moreover, the Commission has decided to close the so-called “lack of notification” infringement cases against eight countries: Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Latvia and Portugal, which were opened for failure to notify to the Commission the national measures transposing the Collective Rights Management Directive in national law.
These cases related to the lack of implementing measures and not to the substance of national implementing laws, on which the Commission did not take a position. The eight Member States have now informed the Commission that the necessary legislation has been adopted to fully transpose the Directive into national legislation.
In case the transposition remains incomplete and the Court of Justice of the EU confirms the Commission’s view, the daily penalty would have to be paid from the date of the judgment or a later date set by the Court until the transposition is complete. The final amount of the daily penalty will be decided by the Court, but this cannot exceed the Commission’s proposal.