GVL
We are one of the biggest collective management organisations for neighbouring rights in Europe. Please read on to find out more about our activity as representatives of our rights holders.
You can access information on the modification of the accounting systems for remuneration entitlements from the rights categories private copying (ZPÜ) and rental and lending as well as on the Federal Government's reduction of VAT.
As a result of a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), certain remuneration entitlements under Sections 27, 54, 54a and 54c of the German Copyright Act (UrhG) are no longer subject to VAT.
This shall, since the distributions runs in September, apply to all revenues from the private copying (ZPÜ) and rental and lending rights categories for the years 2018 and 2019. For the years 2016 and 2017, this procedure shall only be applied with the relevant final distributions.
GVL has adapted its distribution systems accordingly. What this means for you in concrete terms is that from the coming distributions onwards, two separate payout notifications will be provided for each payout if you participate in the distribution of private copy proceeds.
In this case, the payout notifications differentiate between revenue subject to VAT and revenue not subject to VAT. We have adapted our detailed reports so that both sources of revenue are shown separately, but you can still see the total amount.
Unlike the remuneration itself, however, the collection costs associated with private copying are subject to the currently reduced VAT and are shown accordingly on your invoice.
Important: Despite separate distribution documents, the payment to you will be made in a joint transfer of the entire payment amount.
To sum up:
Special aspect for instalments already paid out
This shall apply to all revenues from the private copying (ZPÜ) and rental and lending rights categories from the upcoming distribution runs onwards. For the revenues from rights categories private copying (ZPÜ) and rental and lending, which are no longer subject to VAT, we must now deduct the VAT paid out in March in the current payout run of the regularly executed initial distribution 2019.
The deducted amount will be shown separately on the payout notification.