Agreement Foresees Discount on Intellectual Rights Fees for Greek Hoteliers

In efforts to relieve hoteliers of steep fees for the use of music, the Hellenic Federation of Hoteliers (POX) and the Special Service of Emergency Rights Management (EYED), a non-for-profit collecting society representing intellectual rights, signed a Memorandum of Understanding last week.

More specifically, the agreement foresees the issue of a two-year permit to POX members for the use of music with a retrospective 20 percent discount for 2018, and 15 percent deduction for 2019.

POX has been in ongoing negotiations to achieve a fairer charge, reiterating in the meantime its demand for the establishment of a single management body that will represent all intellectual property collection societies (intellectual and related rights).

Referring to the inconsistency of the fees, the confusion due to the number of collection societies and to the lack of political will for the resolution of the issue, HCH President Grigoris Tasios said the HCH and EYED “have reached a solution so that our member hotels can acquire the permit for the legitimate public use of music”.

In relative news, last summer, the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels (HCH) called on then culture minister Lydia Koniordou to proceed with a framework that would clearly define copyright and related rights fees that accommodation facilities are required to pay to collecting societies for the use of television in the rooms.