On the 6th of March 2025, the CJEU issued a judgement regarding the transfer of related rights of performers. The case concerned a dispute between musicians employed under the administrative law statute by the Belgian National Orchestra and the Belgian state. This dispute arose from the Royal Decree of 1 June 2021, which stated that the proper functioning of the National Orchestra requires the assignment to the National Orchestra of all rights related to the performance and exploitation of performances by performers.

In a lawsuit filed with a Belgian court, the musicians sought to invalidate the aforementioned royal decree, arguing in particular that the provisions of the decree violate EU law. They also indicated that the assignment of their related rights to the national orchestra, made without prior consent and without the possibility of negotiating remuneration, violates the provisions of the directives concerning the protection of copyright and related rights – in particular Directive 2019/790.

In these circumstances, the Belgian court decided to file a request for a preliminary ruling to the CJEU to determine whether the provisions of Directive 2019/790 prevent the assignment of related rights to an employer without the consent of performers employed under administrative law.

In its judgement, the CJEU emphasised that the harmonisation of copyright law requires a uniform interpretation of the concepts used in EU directives and indicated that the concept of 'performer’ in the decree of 1 June 2021 should be given the same meaning as in the light of Directive 2019/790. The CJEU pointed out that although the provisions of Directive 2019/790 relating to fair remuneration of authors and performers under exploitation agreements contain wording such as, i.a. ‘principle of freedom of contract’, ‘contracting party’, ‘adjustment of agreements’, ‘exclusivity of the agreement’ or ‘contractual provisions’, it cannot be inferred from these terms that these provisions exclude performers employed under administrative law from their scope of application.

Summary

Consequently, the CJEU emphasised that the assignment of related rights under national legislation must not be carried out in a way that effectively deprives artists of the opportunity to negotiate conditions that are favourable to their work. In the absence of the consent of the performers involved, the assignment of the related rights to which those performers are entitled is precluded by the provisions of Directive 2001/29/EC.

The full text of the judgement is available at: https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=296203&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=2875209