Spain: CNMC slaps abuse of dominance fine on Authors and Publishers group

Spain’s National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) has fined the General Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE) for 2.95 million euros for abuse of dominance in the exploitation of intellectual property rights in musical and audiovisual works.

The regulator condemned the SGAE for imposing conditions that “unjustifiably restrict the freedom of its members” in granting or withdrawing their rights from the entity’s management. The CNMC also added fines for dominant position in the granting of authorizations and remunerations through the sale of reproduction authorization packages, as well as the absence of tariff breakdowns and their differences by sector, making it so that the user would be unable to know the real costs or compare with other offers from competitors.

The CNMC has therefore urged the SGAE to cease these conducts, in addition to the aforementioned sanction. With its decision, the CNMC ends an investigation started in 2017.