Case C-367/15 - Punitive damages and copyright infringers

Poland has a copyright collecting society that is specialised in collecting money in respect of audiovisual works, cable television and acts of retransmission. It is the Stowarzyszenie “Oławska Telewizja Kablowa. Company ‘O’ has been distributing television programmes via cable TV in a region of Poland. However, the TV cable company failed to sign an agreement with the Polish collecting society in respect of the company’s use of the copyright-protected audiovisual works in the programmes. Accordingly, the company was sued in 2009 for copyright infringement. The collecting society pointed out that under Article 79 of the Polish Copyright Act, a copyright holder whose rights have been infringed is entitled to compensation that is equivalent to an amount which is two or three times that which the infringer would have had to have paid for a licence in the first place. However, the company is challenging the legality of the relevant provisions in the Polish Copyright Act, and claims that Polish law does not comply with EU law. The dispute has escalated up to the Polish Supreme Court. http://eulawradar.com/case-c-36715-stowarzyszenie-olawska-telewizja-kablowa-punitive-damages-and-copyright-infringers/ http://curia.europa.eu/juris/liste.jsf?language=en&jur=C,T,F&num=C-367/15&td=ALL