Distribution Rules: Decision of the Federal Institute for Intellectual Property

The Federal Institute for Intellectual Property has approved the following amendments to SUISA's Distribution Rules:

Follow the respective link to the wording of the decision, available in German only, however. The individual amendments to the Distribution Rules are published in German, French and Italian in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SHAB/FOSC).

"Allocation of tariff revenues from CT 3c / Revision of point 5.5.4", published in the SHAB/FOSC of  May 14, 2024.

SUISA is required to distribute the exploitation proceeds in proportion to the revenue derived from the individual works and performances (Art. 49(1) CopA). If distribution entails unreasonable expense, SUISA may, however, estimate the extent of revenue (Art. 49(2) CopA). With regard to remuneration without programme documents, point 5.3.2 of the Distribution Rules provides that remuneration is allocated to the distribution categories (DC) consisting mainly of the same or most similar kind of music.  This principle must be taken into account in the allocation of individual tariff revenues under the Distribution Rules. Accordingly, a review must be conducted from time to time to ensure that the repertoire used is still comparable. Against this background, the present review concerns the allocation of tariff revenues from CT 3c. The allocations to DC 5 (church performances) and DC 9D (performance of audiovisual recordings (cinemas excluded)) will be replaced since the corresponding repertoire is already adequately covered by other allocations. Instead of these two distribution classes, a new allocation of 20.5% will be made to DC 12B (entertainment events with music from sound recordings).