Companies from the Agora media group, and more specifically “Wyborcza”, Gazeta.pl, Agora Radio Group and Eurozet, filed a complaint in the Warsaw court application to “summon the State Treasury to a settlement attempt”.
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“Wyborcza” and Gazeta.pl want PLN 200 million in compensation from the State Treasury
The announcement sent by the companies on Wednesday shows that the request concerns the initiation of conciliation proceedings in the case claims of Agora's companies for payment of compensation in the total amount of PLN 207 million 600 thousand. PLN resulting from the lack of implementation of EU directives from June 8, 2021 to September 19, 2024. This concerns regulations regarding copyright and related rights in the digital single market.
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“The companies' compensation claim covers lost profits in the form of remuneration that the companies could have obtained from information society service providers for the use of their press publications during the period of delay in the transposition of the directive,” we read in the statement.
We don't know any more details yet. Agora indicated that it would inform about all important stages of the proceedings in subsequent current reports.
EU copyright regulations. What is the application of Agora companies about?
The dispute concerns Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market, called the DSM Directive, which was to be implemented into the national law of EU countries by June 7, 2021. Its key goal was to adapt copyright law to the realities of the digital economy and strengthen the position of creators and publishers vis-à-vis global online platforms.
The most important from the point of view of press publishers is Art. 15, which introduces a new related right for publishers of press publications, granting them the right to remuneration for commercial use of their content by Internet service providersin particular search engines and news aggregators. This provision is intended to enable the media to negotiate licensing agreements with digital platforms and obtain compensation for the use of fragments of articles, leads or news teasers, while excluding private and non-commercial use and very short fragments.
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The second pillar of the directive is Art. 17, which changes the rules of liability of large platforms sharing user-generated content, such as social networking sites or video platforms, requiring them to obtain licenses from authorized entities and take actions to prevent unauthorized sharing of protected content.
The directive also contains provisions strengthening the negotiating position of creators vis-à-vis publishers and producers, including the principle of adequate and proportionate remuneration, transparency mechanisms in settlements and the possibility of demanding additional remuneration when the initially agreed one turns out to be abnormally low.
The lack of timely implementation of these regulations into Polish law meant that for several years press publishers could not effectively claim new rights and remuneration provided for in the directive.
