SGAE fines €6.38 million for abuse of dominant position

The National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) published this Wednesday a resolution according to which fine of €6,387,819 to the General Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE) for two offences, abuse of a dominant position in rates for the use of their musical and audiovisual works.

For both musical rights and for some audiovisual works, the GGAE has developed and applied such high “effective use rates” compared to “average availability rates” (flat) “that were not expected in terms of In general, this is a real an alternative to the latter, neither for radio nor for television stations,” says CNMC.

The consequence of this system is that “the vast majority of users were forced to pay SGAE prices.” disconnected from their actual use of their repertoire, both in terms of the number of works and the intensity of their use (exploitative abuse).”

And also that “the predominant use of fixed rates makes it difficult for competitors to penetrate and expand,” which reinforces SGAE’s dominant position.

For this reason, the CNMC considered that SGAE is responsible for two violations – abuse of a dominant position.

The first in issuing permits for the use of his musical works on radio and television – from at least January 1, 2016 until the closure of the investigation phase of the case – for which a fine of 3,954,364 euros was imposed.

And the second – for abuse of a dominant position in connection with the development and application of affordability tariffs in the electricity market. management of rights to audiovisual works in the period from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2017, Therefore, a fine of 2,433,455 euros was imposed.

The CNMC investigation began following complaints filed by Audiovisual Media Copyright, Management Entity (Dama) and Unison Rights, SL (Unison).

The SGAE, in a text sent to the EFE, considered that the conclusions were “clearly erroneous” and expressed its disagreement with the content of the decision, since the CNMC “has already confirmed in previous files the rates mentioned in this new resolution.” , for this reason he plans to appeal to the National Court.

Although Unison stressed in its statement that the CNMC resolution “confirms that SGAE has continuously abused its dominant position since 2016.which means introducing and maintaining significant barriers to entry for new operators.”