Court of Justice (Fifth Chamber) 25 January 2017, C-367/15 (Stowarzyszenie “Oławska Telewizja Kablowa” w Oławie v Stowarzyszenie Filmowców Polskich w Warszawie.)

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In a preliminary ruling requested by the Polish Supreme Court (Sąd Najwyższy), the Court of Justice (Fifth Chamber) addressed whether Article 13 of Directive 2004/48/EC on the enforcement of intellectual property rights precludes national legislation permitting a copyright holder to claim, without proving actual loss, a lump sum equal to twice the hypothetical royalty that would have been due had the infringer sought authorisation. The Court held that Directive 2004/48 establishes a minimum standard and does not prevent Member States from adopting more protective measures for rightholders, and that lump-sum compensation inherently need not be precisely proportional to actual loss; moreover, the directive's stated aim of not introducing an obligation to provide for punitive damages cannot be read as a prohibition on such measures. Accordingly, Article 13 of Directive 2004/48 must be interpreted as not precluding national legislation under which the holder of an infringed intellectual property right may demand either full compensatory damages or, without proving actual loss, payment of twice the appropriate hypothetical royalty.AI