Most EU member states missed the Copyright Directive implementation deadline, but more than one year after the Directive was due for implementation, a majority of member states have adopted it and all of the remaining member states have made progress.

The European Copyright Directive (Directive EU 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market) was highly discussed from the beginning. Even before the final text was adopted, at the Paris Meeting in September 2018 Franz Gernhardt and Christian Schumacher from the MARQUES Copyright Team informed the audience what to expect on two important aspects:

One is the liability of internet service providers regulated in Article 17 of the Directive, which calls for member states to ensure that online-content sharing service providers are able to review of the content that users wish to upload to their platforms, provided that those service providers have obtained the respective authorisation from rightsholders. The other is the provisions regulating fair remuneration in contracts of authors and performers, such as providing for additional remuneration in case a work turns out to be a specific economic success.

Also because of the peculiarities of these provisions, covering very different practical situations where different circumstances should be considered, in many EU member states the implementation process lead to extensive discussions. It was therefore not surprising that EU member states struggled to meet the implementation deadline of 7 June 2021. But nevertheless the situation was exceptional when in June 2021 only a small number of member states had complied with implementation. Slowly, further member states followed and only now one can state that most member states have implemented or the process of implementation is very advanced.

The MARQUES Copyright Team has been monitoring implementation and providing the public with the MARQUES Copyright Tracker, showing the implementation status. This Tracker was updated in time for the MARQUES Annual Conference last week.

The Copyright Team, with Franz Gernhardt and Christian Schumacher responsible for the Copyright Tracker, thanks all those who have contributed information.