Referral C-441/25 (Agecop, 4 Jul 2025)

In view of the fact that:
a) Portuguese law provides that the fair compensation owed for
reproduction for private use, in accordance with Article 5(2)(a) and (b)
of Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of
copyright and related rights in the information society and Article 16
of Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital
Single Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC, is to
be divided in equal parts between bodies representing authors and
bodies representing publishers; and that,

b) according to Portuguese law, publishers of press publications, in
addition to being holders of a right related to copyright, are also direct
owners of copyright in respect of the newspapers and other
publications which they publish, as well as indirect owners of
copyright in respect of articles published without the author being
identified and, inter alia, resulting from the transfer of that right by the
intellectual creators,

may the above-mentioned directives be interpreted as meaning that they allow the
Portuguese law applicable to the case to be interpreted in such a way that a
collective management organisation representing publishers of newspapers and
other periodical publications, in addition to receiving a share (50%) of the fair
compensation for reproduction owed for private use allocated to publishers, is
entitled to share the remaining 50% of that same fair compensation, which, in
accordance with the law, is owed to authors, with another collective management
organisation representing the intellectual creators of the works included in those
periodical publications, which necessarily implies a reduction in the compensation
received by those creators?