In a decision published on July 16, the Commission gave the 24 collecting societies in the EU 90 days in which to remove clauses that prevent authors from moving to another collecting society and prevent collecting societies from offering licences to commercial users outside their territory.
But the decision does not impose any fines, and does not challenge the existence of bilateral agreements between collecting societies.
The antitrust investigation followed complaints from broadcaster RTL and online music provider Music Choice made against the 24 societies, and their international confederation CISAC.
The Commission found that the prohibited practices restricted competition by limiting collecting societies’ ability to offer services to authors and users outside their own territory.
Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said that the decision will enable collecting societies to compete based on the quality of their services and level of administrative costs, and lead to efficiency improvements.
On July 21, Dutch collecting society Buma/Stemra issued a pan-European licence covering global music repertoire to Beatport.com, an online music retailer. It has also signed a deal covering all 27 EU member states with online music store eMusic.
