Poland’s ruling centre-left government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk has taken a contested decision to extend the scope of a fee paid by producers and importers of electronic devices such as laptops, smartphones and televisions to compensate creators for the copying of their work.
The opposition Conservatives (PiS) have opposed the government’s policy by claiming that it is unconstitutional as it represents the imposition of a tax. According to Poland’s constitution new taxes require a change or legislation rather than a government regulation.
In 1994, Poland introduced a reprographic fee via copyright legislation to compensate creators for the fact that consumers were able more easily copy their work using devices such as tape recorders and photocopiers.
It applied to blank media, such as cassette tapes, CDs, DVDs and even printer paper, as well as the devices that were used for copying onto them such as printers, VCR recorders, scanners, photocopiers and fax machines.
The culture ministry has therefore extended the fee to a range of modern-day devices, including smartphones, televisions, laptops, desktop computers and tablets. They will be hit with a levy of 1% of the device’s price, paid either by firms that produce the products in Poland or those that import them from abroad.
The extension to cover other devices will, according to the culture ministry bring Poland in line with technological advancements and EU standards and ensure that artists and content creators receive greater support,
“Technology and the digital reality have changed radically in that time,” says the culture ministry. “As a result, revenues from reprographic fees in Poland have been among the lowest in the EU for many years, resulting in losses for thousands of Polish creators and performers.”
The culture ministry argues that the fee “is not paid by ordinary people, but collected from corporations” and that Poland generates less revenue from reprographic fees than other countries in Europe.
The government expects receipts from the fee being introduced to more than quadruple as a result of it covering laptops, smartphones and televisions. This means that the current yield from the fee bringing in 9 million Euro should expand to between 40 and 50 million Euros
Revenue from the fee does not go to the state treasury but instead is collected by copyright management organisations, such as the Polish Association of Audio-Video Producers (ZPAV) and the Association of Authors (ZAiKS), which then distribute it to their members. This, argues the government, means that the fee is not a tax and therefore does not need parliamentary approval.
Both ZAiKS and ZPAV welcomed the move which will benefit their members but critics of the legislation believe that the government regulation does not specify how the extra funds should be distributed, thereby giving these bodies too much discretionary power.
The opposition PiS has questioned the legality of the culture ministry’s decision, in particular the fact that it was implemented through a government regulation rather than legislation which requires parliamentary and then presidential approval.
PiS are conducting a social media campaign calling the changes “Tusk’s new tax” and have promised that they will submit the government’s new regulation for consideration to Poland’s constitutional court, a body the composition of which has been challenged by the Tusk government with the rulings as a result going unpublished in Poland’s journal of laws.
The opposition has also criticized the timing of the government announcement which came on April 30, just a day ahead of the long May holidays weekend.
According to conservative commentator Lukasz Warzecha the government’s move is typical of the tactic used by governments.
“The politicians keep promising voters lower taxes. And then they introduce lots of new low taxes increasing the tax burden” said the senior Do Rzeczy weekly commentator.
