What are tariff tables?
Under the Polish copyright law, in some cases the users have to pay royalties for the use of copyrights to the rights holders via CRMOs; this includes retransmitting copyright works, broadcasting audiovisual works, broadcasting short music and literary works. Therefore, users mostly execute agreements with CRMOs, which set forth the terms on the basis of which they works may be exploited and, in particular, the royalties to be paid. CRMOs also establish their own tariff tables in which the general terms of the contracts are specified.
As long as such a tariff table, established solely by a CRMO, would not be authorized by the Copyright Commission, it can be regarded only as a CRMO offer. If, however, such a table is authorized by the Copyright Commission it gains specific legal force. Any contractual provisions which are less beneficial to the authors (represented by CRMOs) than they would be according to the authorized tables, shall be invalid and shall be replaced by the corresponding provisions in such tables. In practice it means that the tariff table would set the minimum royalty rates.
How users may challenge the tariffs proposed by a CRMO before the Copyright Commission?
Users may not act individually in the proceeding before the Copyright Commission, as only an organization representing the users (e.g. the broadcasters, cable operators) can be party to proceedings. An organization being a party to proceedings may present its own standpoint before the Copyright Commission and eventually appeal against the decision of the Copyright Commission. If the appeal is made, then the case will be subject to civil court procedures.
The authorization of tariff tables is not a new procedure
This is to note that the procedure before the Copyright Commission to authorize tariff tables is not new, as it was adopted in the first text of the Polish copyright law of 1994. However the procedure was deemed unconstitutional by the Constitutional Tribunal on January 1, 2006 which stated that users had an insufficient role in proceedings before the Copyright Commission. Since then the authorization procedure could not be effectively triggered. Now, as the copyright law was amended in 2010, the proceedings before the Copyright Commission have been re-launched. Each procedure shall be completed within 6 months, so we can expect the first decisions to be issued at the beginning of 2012.
