The battle between Soundreef and SIAE continues

With a ruling dated May 27, the Milan Court suspended the enforcement action initiated by SIAE against a client company of Soundreef, which, according to SIAE, was guilty of having paid royalties for the distribution of background music to the English collecting society.  

In the proceedings, Soundreef intervened to support its client's case, arguing that its intermediation activity in Italy for the rights to music played within a commercial establishment was fully legitimate. SIAE, however, argued that the English collecting society did not have any mandate to broker such rights.

With the provision issued, the Judge – based on the documents in the case – considered, for the time being, Soundreef's argument to be well-founded and therefore rejected SIAE's appeal pending the resolution of the judgment on the merits.

According to the Milan Court, SIAE has not yet proven to have any authority to broker copyright on the works used by the commercial establishment in question and, in any case, does not appear to have any right to charge the user the penalties requested.

Soundreef's future remains unclear in light of the recent outcome of the referendum on Britain's exit from the European Union. Once the process of leaving the European Union is complete, Soundreef, headquartered in London, could no longer, in principle, invoke the direct application of the Barnier Directive (EU 2014/26).