Collective rights management from 1 January 2021
EEA collective management organisations may not automatically represent UK right holders and collective management organisations from 1 January 2021.
The UK has left the EU
This page tells you what you’ll need to do from 1 January 2021. It’ll be updated if anything changes.
For current information, read: The Collective Rights Management Directive
You can also read about the transition period.
Collective management organisations (CMOs) are not-for-profit and/or member-governed bodies that license rights on behalf of copyright owners.
CMOs in the European Economic Area (EEA) are governed by the Collective Rights Management (CRM) Directive. This includes obligations to represent on request right holders from any EEA member state unless there are objectively justified reasons not to do so.
The Directive also requires EEA CMOs that offer multi-territorial licensing of musical works for online services to represent on request the catalogues of other EEA CMOs that do not offer those licences.
The UK implemented the CRM Directive via the Collective Management of Copyright (EU Directive) Regulations 2016. The government published guidance on those regulations.
Collective rights management from 1 January 2021
From 1 January 2021, EEA CMOs will not be required by the CRM Directive to represent UK right holders or to represent the catalogues of UK CMOs for online licensing of musical rights.
UK right holders and CMOs will still be able to request representation, but EEA CMOs may be free to refuse those requests depending on the law in individual member states.
In the UK, existing obligations on UK CMOs will be maintained following 1 January 2021. These include those specific to multi-territorial licensing of musical works for online services.
UK CMOs that offer multi-territorial licensing of online rights in musical works will continue to be required to represent on request the catalogue of other CMOs (UK or EEA) for multi-territorial licensing purposes.