Germany

[DE] VG Media and Aerial Company Reach Settlement on Retransmission of Broadcast Signals

IRIS 2012-7:1/16

Anne Yliniva-Hoffmann

Institute of European Media Law (EMR), Saarbrücken/Brussels

The Gesellschaft zur Verwertung der Urheber- und Leistungsschutzrechte von Medienunternehmen (Society for the Collection of Copyright and Performance Rights of Media Companies - VG Media) has published a press release announcing that it reached a settlement concerning the retransmission of broadcast signals before the Landgericht Leipzig (Leipzig District Court - LG) on 29 May 2012 with a Saxon company that receives the broadcast signals of various providers and distributes them to connected households (case no.: 05 O 3233/11).

According to reports, the parties could not agree as to whether operators of reception equipment needed a licence to retransmit the broadcast signals of private radio and television companies (see IRIS 2012-5/17 and IRIS 2010-4/15).

Under the settlement, the operator of a (small, private) aerial agreed to pay backdated fees to VG Media and to conclude a licensing agreement for future, related activities.

According to VG Media, the terms of the settlement reflect those of the legal action lodged by the collecting society.