Hengeler Mueller represents hotels in legal dispute with collecting societies on fees for DVB-T reception in hotel rooms

18. December 2015

Yesterday, the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH - Bundesgerichtshof) has decided that hotels providing televisions with a DVB-T antenna in their guest rooms do not owe copyright fees to GEMA and other collecting societies – as they do for satellite or cable transmission. The dispute raised the fundamental question whether or not commercial businesses are liable for copyright royalties if they merely provide reception devices to access copyright protected content. The German Federal Court of Justice decided that there is no such liability.

Hengeler Mueller represented the defendant hotel. The Hengeler Mueller team included partner Albrecht Conrad and associate Matthias Berberich (both Copyright Law, Berlin).