No copyright levies for cloud services: Dropbox successful with CMS in landmark case

Berlin - The Zentralstelle für private Überspielungsrechte (ZPÜ), a joint venture of the most important German collecting societies, has sued Dropbox for payment of copyright levies for the cloud services provided by Dropbox in Germany. The Munich Higher Regional Court dismissed the claim. 

The court ruled that cloud storage is not subject to copyright levies. An obligation to pay such levies does not arise from either German or European law. This is because European Union law gives Member States a wide leeway when implementing the obligation to guarantee fair compensation to authors for private copies of copyrighted works. With its decision that German copyright law is in line with Union copyright law and that the obligation to pay levies does not extend to cloud services, the court fully followed the arguments filed by Dropbox. 

Dropbox was represented in the proceedings by a CMS team with the experienced copyright and litigation lawyer Dr Ole Jani and Senior Associate Dr Maximilian Vonthien. The case is of fundamental importance for all cloud storage providers in Germany.

CMS Germany

Dr Ole Jani, Dispute Resolution
Dr Maximilian Vonthien, IP

Dropbox

Anita Kalra, Senior Director Global Public Policy & Regulatory Legal
Shirin Goyal, Litigation Counsel
Daniel Florian, Director of Government Affairs, EMEA & APJ

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