Judgment of the Court of Justice First Chamber, 6 March 2025, ONB and Others, C-575/23

• Date: 06 March 2025
• Year: 2025

24

avoiding distortions of competition between the economic operators concerned, cannot have the

effect of allow ing Member Stat es to make compliance with fiscal marking requirement a precondition

for the exemption from, or application of a reduc ed rate of, exc ise duty.

It would be otherwise only if the operator concerned intentionally participated in tax evasion which

has jeopard ised the operation of th e system of taxat ion of energy products and electricity or if failure

to com ply with the fiscal marking requirement has the effect of preventing the production of

conclusive ev idence that the gas oil has been used for the purposes of t he application of a reduced

level of t axatio n or exempt ion.

VII. APPROXIMAT ION OF LAWS

1. COPYRI GHT

Judgment of the Court of Justice (First Chamber), 6 Mar ch 2025, ONB and Others, C-575/23

Link t o the full text o f th e judgment

Reference for a preliminary ruling – Approximation of laws – In tellectual p roperty – Copyright and related

righ ts – Performers engaged under an administrative law statute – Assignment of related rights by means

of a regulatory act – Directive 2001/29/EC – Article 2(b) and Article 3(2) – Rights of reproduction and of

making available to the public – Directi ve 2006/115/EC – Articles 7 to 9 – R ights of fixation , broadcas ting,

communication to the pub lic and distribution – Directive (EU) 2019/790 – Articles 18 to 23 – F air

remunera tion in e xploitation contracts – Article 26 – Application in time – Concepts of ‘acts concluded’ and

‘rights acquired ’

Ruling on a request for a preliminary ruling from the Conseil d’État (Council of State, Belgium), the

Court of Justice rules on the possibility for Member States to limit, by means of a regulatory act, the

exercise of t he related right s of performers en gaged under an a dministrativ e law statute.

On 1 June 2021, the Belgian State ad opt ed the Royal Decree concerning the related rights of artistic

personnel of the Belgian National Orchestra (Belgian National Orchestra; ONB) (‘the Royal Decree of

1 June 2021’), which entered into force on 4 June 2021.

Before that royal decree was adopted, the exploitation of the related rights of the musicians of the

ONB was negotiated on a case-by-case basis within a consult ative committee. Between 2016 and

2021, the ONB and the trade union delegations of the musicians of that orchestra held negotiations in

order to reach an agreement on fair remunerat ion by t he ONB for t he performances of t hose

musicians. Since those negotiations were not successful, the Belgian State adopted that royal decree.

According to the terms of that decree, the performer is to assign t o the ONB, in ret urn for

compensatory allowances, the related rights which concern any performances carried out in the

context of his or her service to that orchestra. The right of communication to the public and the rights

of reproduction and distribution which the musicians of the ONB hold are thus assigned for the entire

duratio n of the related rig hts and worldwid e.

A number of musicians brought an action before the Conseil d’État (Council of State) for annulment of

the Royal Decree of 1 June 2021, on the ground that the provisions of that royal decree infringed EU

law, in p articular Dir ective 2019/790. 28

In those circumstances, the Conseil d’État (Council of State) decided to refer questions to the Court of

Justice for a preliminary ruling seeking to ascertain, in essence, whether the provisions of that

28 Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyrigh t and rela ted rights in th e Digital S ingle

Market an d amend ing Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC (OJ 2019 L 130, p . 92).