The European General Court partially annulled the European Commission's decision from 2008 prohibited 24 European collecting societies from restricting competition, in particular by limiting their ability to offer their services to authors and commercial users outside their domestic territory. According to the Court, the Commission has not provided sufficient evidence.

The European General Court partially annulled the 2008 Commission's Decision that banned 24 European collecting societie from restricting competition, in particular by limiting their ability to offer their services to authors and commercial users outside their domestic territory. The Court considered that the Commission has not provided sufficient evidence. In addition, the General Court rejected the applications in so far as they sought the annulment of the Commission decision in respect of the membership and exclusivity clauses. In July 2012, the Commission proposed rules to modernise collecting societies in the EU.

According to the judgments, the Commission did not have documents proving the existence of concertation between the collecting societies as regards the territorial scope of the mandates which they grant each other. Moreover, it did not render implausible the applicants’ explanation that the parallel conduct of the collecting societies at issue was not the result of concertation, but rather of the need to fight effectively against the unauthorised use of musical works.

The Commission's Decision from July 2008 prohibited 24 European collecting societies from restricting competition, in particular by limiting their ability to offer their services to authors and commercial users outside their domestic territory. The Commission decision, which concerns solely the exploitation of copyright via the internet, satellite and cable retransmission, does not call into question the very existence of reciprocal representation agreements. It did not impose fines on the collecting societies but did require that they remove the clauses in question from the model contract and bring an end to the concerted practice.