Twice the amount of the appropriate royalties for intellectual property rights infringement compatible with EU law – important judgment of the European Court of Justice

The European Court  of Justice in the judgment of 25 January 2017 (case C 367/15) referred to the issue of compliance with EU law provisions of the Polish copyright law under which a rightholder whose copyright has been infringed may demand a payment of damages as a lump sum corresponding to twice the appropriate fee. 

The Court confirmed that in case of copyright infringement a rightholder may request the person who infringed its copyright to: remedy the loss caused on the basis of general principles or, without having to prove loss and the causal relationship between the event infringing its rights and the loss, demand payment of the amount corresponding to twice the appropriate fee.

It should be underlined that this regulation was assessed as regards its compliance with EU law. The judgment therefore is not an obstacle to declare the regulation unconstitutional, as in the case of damages as a lump sum corresponding to three times the appropriate fee (see the judgment of Polish Constitutional Court of 23 June 2015, case SK 32/14).
The ECJ judgment is available under the link:
http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=187122&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=494493