Judge: Buma/Stemra must act against Spotify use in shops and catering

Music rights organization Buma/Stemra must take action against companies that use streaming services such as Spotify in business premises. This includes, for example, restaurants and shops. This is apparent from an appeal filed by suppliers of background music systems.

Companies that want to play music in business premises must enter into a license agreement with Buma/Stemra. At the moment, that agreement does not state which services they may or may not use to play that music. As a result, in practice more and more restaurants and shops use streaming services such as Spotify to play music, appears from the appeal.

The use of, for example, Spotify for business use is against the conditions of those streaming services, but in practice such services do not or hardly act against this. These streaming services do not pay Buma/Stemra to use the music for business purposes, but only for private use.

Companies that want to play music in business spaces have to turn to certain organizations, such as suppliers of background music systems. These suppliers have other agreements with Buma/Stemra, so that the music they supply can be used in business premises, but these suppliers are more expensive for entrepreneurs than, for example, Spotify.

The suppliers felt that there was an unfair playing field, because companies such as catering and shops use Spotify, even though this is actually not allowed and no one is taking action against it. That is why they asked Buma/Stemra to take action against this. Buma/Stemra said they could not do this, because the agreement that the organization concludes with entrepreneurs does not state which services they may or may not use to play the music. That is why entrepreneurs who use Spotify, for example, do not violate the agreement they concluded with Buma/Stemra.

The trade association of suppliers of background music systems ABMD therefore demanded in court that this agreement be amended and entrepreneurs were thereby obliged to only use services intended for business use. The court agrees with this. All new agreements and renewals of agreements should therefore have that new provision. Buma/Stemra is given six months to draw up these amended agreements, after which all extensions and new contracts must be given that provision. In nine months’ time, the music rights organization must also check whether entrepreneurs comply with this new agreement.

In addition, the ABMD members are entitled to compensation because, according to the court, Buma/Stemra has known since 2010 that this is an unfair playing field for the ABMD members. The amount of the compensation has yet to be determined.