Collective Copyright Licensing and the Ban on Cartels for the Solo Self-Employed

It has long been disputed in Europe under which conditions collective agreements on the re-muneration of copyright holders are compatible with the ban on anti-competitive agreements in Article 101 TFEU. Privileging certain copyright licensing agreements, the European Commis-sion’s 2022 guidelines on the application of competition law to collective agreements on work-ing conditions for solo self-employed persons, have reignited the debate. This article discusses the limits of collective bargaining and collective agreements for copyright holders under EU competition law and what the Commission’s guidelines mean for practice. The article con-cludes, inter alia, that because the guidelines are incompatible with the case law of the Court of Justice on the exemption of labour agreements from Article 101 TFEU, the guidelines only bind the Commission partially and have only a limited impact on civil litigation concerning the validity of collective licensing agreements. While focusing on the legal situation in Germany, the main findings apply across Europe