The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on 27th June that  member states can put in place a system in which a levy is paid by printers manufacturers to compensate authors for unauthorized reproduction of their work. This compensation must not be subtancially different from the amount fixed for a reproduction obtained by means of a single device.

The ruling also states that even if a rightholder has authorised the reproduction of his work, the fair compensation can apply.

It also says that technological protection measures cannot render inapplicable the conditions under which fair compensation applies.

This decision follows a request made between German collecting society VG Wort and Kyocera, Epson, Canon, Fujitsu and Hewlett Packard concerning the remuneration that those businesses would be obliged to pay to VG Wort due to the placing on the market of printers and/or plotters and of personal computers.
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