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

Music rights organization Buma/Stemra must take action against companies that use streaming services such as Spotify in business premises. This concerns, for example, restaurants and shops. This appears 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 are using streaming services such as Spotify to play music, appears from the appeal.

The use of Spotify for business use, for example, is against the terms and conditions of those streaming services, but in practice such services do not or hardly oppose 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 premises must turn to certain organizations, such as suppliers of background music systems. These suppliers have other agreements with Buma/Stemra, which means 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 the catering industry and shops use Spotify, even though this is actually not allowed and no one is taking any 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 says nothing about 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 branch organization of suppliers of background music systems ABMD therefore demanded that the agreement be amended in court, obliging entrepreneurs to only use services intended for business use. The court agrees. All new agreements and renewals of agreements should therefore have this new provision. Buma/Stemra is given six months to draw up those amended agreements, after which all extensions and new contracts must have this stipulation. In nine months, 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 unfair playing field exists for the ABMD members. The amount of that compensation has yet to be determined.