RAO won a more than one million payout in favour of its authors

12.12.2017

On 29 November, 2017 the Court of appeal recognized legitimate the previous decision of Moscow region Arbitration court to satisfy the amount of RAO claim against private entrepreneur Ms. Tatiana Kozak.

From January to September, 2015, Ms. Kozak showed movies in the “Boulevard” cinema, which implies music performance, but she did not pay any royalties. RAO filed a lawsuit against the private entrepreneur to recover remuneration in the amount of 1 080 025 rubles for the public performance of musical works within audiovisual works.

The Court confirmed that with her actions Ms. Kozak violated the rights and legitimate interests of both Russian and foreign right holders. The Court ruling became a crisis moment in the malpractice when numerous cinemas refused to pay royalties to RAO.

The trial got the full approval of famous Russian film composers creating musical masterpieces for popular films and series, whose right to remuneration had been violated by the defendant. Foreign collective management organizations (CMOs) showed RAO their support on this case during the trial.