rec_19

(19) Having regard to the freedoms established in the TFEU, collective management of copyright and related rights should entail a rightholder being able freely to choose a collective management organisation for the management of his rights, whether those rights be rights of communication to the public or reproduction rights, or categories of rights related to forms of exploitation such as broadcasting, theatrical exhibition or reproduction for online distribution, provided that the collective management organisation that the rightholder wishes to choose already manages such rights or categories of rights. The rights, categories of rights or types of works and other subject-matter managed by the collective management organisation should be determined by the general assembly of members of that organisation if they are not already determined in its statute or prescribed by law. It is important that the rights and categories of rights be determined in a manner that maintains a balance between the freedom of rightholders to dispose of their works and other subject-matter and the ability of the organisation to manage the rights effectively, taking into account in particular the category of rights managed by the organisation and the creative sector in which it operates. Taking due account of that balance, rightholders should be able easily to withdraw such rights or categories of rights from a collective management organisation and to manage those rights individually or to entrust or transfer the management of all or part of them to another collective management organisation or another entity, irrespective of the Member State of nationality, residence or establishment of the collective management organisation, the other entity or the rightholder. Where a Member State, in compliance with Union law and the international obligations of the Union and its Member States, provides for mandatory collective management of rights, rightholders’ choice would be limited to other collective management organisations. Collective management organisations managing different types of works and other subject-matter, such as literary, musical or photographic works, should also allow this flexibility to rightholders as regards the management of different types of works and other subject-matter. As far as non-commercial uses are concerned, Member States should provide that collective management organisations take the necessary steps to ensure that their rightholders can exercise the right to grant licences for such uses. Such steps should include, inter alia, a decision by the collective management organisation on the conditions attached to the exercise of that right as well as the provision to their members of information on those conditions. Collective management organisations should inform rightholders of their choices and allow them to exercise the rights related to those choices as easily as possible. Rightholders who have already authorised the collective management organisation may be informed via the website of the organisation. A requirement for the consent of rightholders in the authorisation to the management of each right, category of rights or type of works and other subject-matter should not prevent the rightholders from accepting proposed subsequent amendments to that authorisation by tacit agreement in accordance with the conditions set out in national law. Neither contractual arrangements according to which a termination or withdrawal by rightholders has an immediate effect on licences granted prior to such termination or withdrawal, nor contractual arrangements according to which such licences remain unaffected for a certain period of time after such termination or withdrawal, are, as such, precluded by this Directive. Such arrangements should not, however, create an obstacle to the full application of this Directive. This Directive should not prejudice the possibility for rightholders to manage their rights individually, including for non-commercial uses.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-31 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.