L'incompatibilità dell'art. 180 l. a. con il diritto dell'Unione europea

Directive 2014/26/EU liberalized the market for collective management of copyright and related rights in Europe. In doing this, it distinguished collecting societies into two categories. “Collective Management Organisations” (CMOs) are entities that are either controlled (or owned) by rightholders or organized on a “non-profit” basis. Conversely, “Independent Management Entities” (IMEs) operate “for profit” and are not controlled by rightholders. Prior to the adoption of the directive, Italian law entrusted SIAE with a legal monopoly for the collective management of copyright. In 2017 a reform put an end to this system, by opening up the market to new entrants. However, liberalization was not fully accomplished. According to the new rules, an entity can only manage copyright in Italy if it qualifies as a CMO. In other words, IMEs are still not allowed to manage copyright in the Italian market. Such a restriction raised lively debates in Italy and its compatibility with EU law has recently been the object of a request for a preliminary ruling of the CJEU by the “tribunale di Roma”. My work deals precisely with the question whether the choice of preventing IMEs from entering the Italian market is compatible with the principles of directive 2014/26 and with general principles of EU law on the Internal Market.