المملكة: Urgent – 500,000 fines and a 25% ceiling for deductions… a new regulation to protect authors’ rights
Introduced The Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property, through the “Estalaa” platform, issued a new regulation to regulate the collective management of authors’ rights; In order to protect their financial returns and distribute them transparently, fines amounting to half a million riyals were imposed on violators.
The Authority confirmed the prohibition of practicing any activity related to managing the financial rights of creators and owners of related rights without obtaining a prior official license extending for three renewable years.
The Authority clarified, in its draft new regulatory regulations, that joining collective management organizations represents a mandate to manage financial rights, without entailing the transfer of ownership of those rights to the organization in any way.
Protecting the efforts of creators
As a victory for the creators and to protect their efforts, the regulations set a maximum ceiling for the administrative expenses that the organization has the right to deduct, so that they do not exceed a maximum of twenty-five percent of the total financial returns generated.
Intellectual property obligates organizations to distribute financial returns fairly fairly according to accurate accounting records, with the requirement to appoint an external auditor to ensure integrity and transparency in financial transactions.
The draft stressed the need to decide on completed license applications within a period not exceeding thirty days, while obligating the licensing authorities to create an official website within ninety days of starting the activity.
The Authority threatened violators of the provisions of the regulation with deterrent penalties that include severe financial fines of up to five hundred thousand riyals, in addition to the possibility of completely or partially suspending the license, or canceling it permanently.
It revealed that its inspectors were granted broad powers to control violations, and to impose immediate and direct penalties of up to ten thousand riyals, with the possibility of assigning some inspection tasks to the private sector to enhance oversight.
The Authority provided the affected parties with the right to appeal the decisions issued against them within sixty days, while preserving their legal right to resort to the competent courts when needed.
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