THE IRISH Hotels Federation has described as “outrageous” yesterday’s ruling from the European Court of Justice that hotels should pay royalties for the broadcast of recordings on TVs and radios in hotel bedrooms. It would result in extra costs being imposed where many premises are already struggling to survive, the federation said in a statement.
Phonographic Performance (Ireland) Limited, which arranges for the collection of royalties for recordings, brought an action to the High Court last year seeking a declaration that Ireland was in breach of EU law in exempting hotels from having to pay for broadcasts of recordings in bedrooms. The court referred a number of questions to the European court, which issued its ruling yesterday.
EU law provides for remuneration for those who produce recordings for commercial purposes, but allows for exemptions for “private use”. The court considered whether such broadcasts in hotel bedrooms were private or public use.
The court concluded the “user” in this instance was a person or body that gave access to the recording contained in the broadcast to its customers, in this instance the hotelier. It defined “public” as being an indeterminate number of potential listeners and a fairly large number of people, and also stated the profit-making nature of the broadcast was a relevant factor.
The court found that the broadcasting of radio and TV programmes to hotel guests in their bedrooms met these criteria, as it was only possible to listen to them as a result of the deliberate intervention of the hotelier; there was an indeterminate number of potential listeners which could constitute a “public”; and the broadcasting of the programmes was a profit-making enterprise, in that the availability of TV and radio would have an influence on the hotel’s standing and the price of rooms.
It also stated that what determined whether or not a broadcast was private was the use of the recording by the operator, not whether the viewer or listener saw it in private.
Therefore, having met the criteria under EU law, hotels should pay “equitable remuneration” for the broadcast of the recording, in addition to that paid by the broadcaster.
The case will now go back to the High Court for a decision based on the interpretation provided by the European Court of Justice.
Tim Fenn, chief executive of the federation, said: “Hotel bedrooms are not public areas and should not be treated as such. Hotels have always considered guest bedrooms to be the private space of their guests and this should be the case in relation to this type of charge.”