Monitoring of organisations for collective management of copyright in 2020

The Act on the Collective Management of Copyright (1494/2016, Collective Management Act) entered into force on 1 January 2017. According to Section 54(2) of the Collective Management Act, the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH) monitors compliance with the Collective Management Act.

In 2020, there were seven organisations for managing copyright and related rights in Finland:

• Finnish Composers’ Copyright Society Teosto ry
  
• Copyright Society of Performing Artists and Phonogram Producers in Finland GRAMEX ry
  
• Copyright organization for creative work Kopiosto ry
  
• Audiovisual Producers Finland – APFI ry
  
• Copyright society for artists working in visual arts Kuvasto ry
  
• Finnish literary copyright society Sanasto ry
  
• Copyright society for actors Filmex ry
  

Tasks of the PRH

The tasks of the PRH are described in Section 54 of the Collective Management Act. Read more about the the tasks. Open link in a new tab

Supervisory matters can be initiated by submitting a request for measures to the PRH. The PRH also monitors compliance with the Collective Management Act on its own initiative.

The PRH is part of the Advisory Board for the Development of Collective Management.

Annual transparency reports of the collective management organisations

At the end of 2019, the PRH held a separate meeting with each of the collective management organisations. During the meetings, the parties reviewed the annual transparency reports for 2018 and registered the clarifications for the following year. At the beginning of 2020, the PRH finalised memorandums of the transparency reports separately for each collective management organisation.

At the end of the year, the PRH examined the 2019 annual transparency reports of the collective management organisations. The deadline for the organisations to submit reports to the PRH was 31 August 2020.

Owing to the duty to provide guidance and to promote good practices as stated in the Collective Management Act, the PRH considers it necessary to start preparing guidelines concerning the annual transparency reports. Preparations will continue in 2021.

The Advisory Board’s recommendation to the collective management organisations

The Advisory Board for the Development of Collective Management committee promotes good practices and issues recommendations on procedures and standards in the field of copyright according to Section 62 of the Collective Management Act.

The Advisory Board discussed annual transparency reports, and on 15 January 2020, it issued a recommendation on the reports. Read the recommendation on the transparency reports (in Finnish).Open link in a new tab

Last year, the Advisory Board only met twice at the beginning of the year. The rest of the meetings were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Pending cases at the PRH

In 2020, the PRH investigated pending cases. As to these cases, the PRH has requested clarifications on several occasions, met with the collective management organisations, drafted memorandums of meetings and discussed with parties that had submitted requests for measures.

The pending cases relate to the following subjects:

• Extent, time limits and cancellations of transfer of rights attended to through contracts between rightholders and collective management organisations
  
• Activity of the collective management organisations in the market
  
• Extent of the rightholder’s self-determination
  
• Releasing works from the management of the collective management organisations
  

PRH decision to dismiss a case

In 2020, the PRH also decided to dismiss a case. The decision concerned the self-management of works, when the rightholder has not transferred the rights to a collective management organisation. In this case, the collective management organisation dropped the claims concerning the works. The PRH decided to dismiss the matter under Section 57(1)(1) of the Collective Management Act.

Other activities of the PRH

In addition to the requests for measures according to the Collective Management Act, the PRH has actively investigated tips it has received and looked into the procedures of the collective management organisations. The PRH has also provided instructions to the collective management organisations, rightholders, users and other parties about the interpretations of the Collective Management Act.

Collaboration with other organisations

Last year, the PRH also regularly collaborated with the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) and the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (FCCA). The PRH also took part in international cooperation.

Together with MEC, the PRH participated in three investigations of the Directorate‑General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG-CONNECT) of the European Commission. The first one was introduced to the PRH at the beginning of the year by the MEC and was related to multi-territorial licencing as regulated in Directive 2014/26/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on collective management of copyright and related rights and multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online use in the internal market (CRM Directive) and Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market, and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC (DSM Directive). The enquiry was founded on the necessity to clarify the need to amend the legislation and to make sure that current legislation is functioning as intended.

The two other investigations of the European Commission occurred at the end of the year. The first one related to questions concerning the general application of the CRM directive, and in particular to the rules on management and transparency. The second investigation focused on multi-territorial licensing stated in the CRM Directive and on extended collective licensing.
In 2020, Nordic collaboration meetings and other stakeholder events were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Admonitions initiated by the PRH on its own initiative between 2017 and 2020

The PRH has issued two admonitions on its own initiative according to Section 60 of the Collective Management Act. The admonitions were issued in 2018 and 2019. Both of them concerned submitting information according to Section 40 of the Collective Management Act to the PRH and submitting the annual transparency report according to Section 41 of the Collective Management Act.

Proceedings initiated at the PRH between 2017 and 2020 resulting from requests for measures

2017: 1 matter (decision to dismiss the matter)
2018: 2 matters (both pending)
2019: 2 matters (both pending)
2020: 1 matter (decision to dismiss the matter)