SGAE scandal looms

The former head of Spanish music collection society SGAE’s digital arm has been accused of orchestrating false payments worth €57,000 – and could face a substantial prison term. The case dates back to the three years between 2008 and 2011. Spanish singer José Ramón Márquez (Ramoncín) who was also a SGAE Board member, is accused of issuing false invoices to SGAE that allowed him to extract nearly €60,000 out of the songwriters and publishers organisation. Jose Luis Rodriguez Neri, who was Director General of Spain’s Digital Society Of Authors (SDAE) until 2011, faces charges of financial misappropriation – by consenting to Ramoncín’s invoices – and faces a maximum sentence four years and ten months of jail time if found guilty. Ramoncín, who potentially faces the same jail term as Neri, announced that he is aiming to “hang a sign” behind him in which “reads ‘innocent'”. The former MD of SGAE, Enrique Loras, faces over two years in prison  for ‘misuse’ or a fine of €20,866 euros for ‘mismanagement appropriation’. hTe former director of Legal Services for SGAE, Pablo Hernandez Arroyo, is also implicated. He potentially faces two years and nine months in prison or, alternatively, a fine of 40,356 euros for ‘mismanagement’.

http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2015/05/25/actualidad/1432552020_268970.html

SGAE Misses Crucial Tariffs Deadline

Promoters in Spain are considering putting on concerts without signing – or paying – licence agreements with performing rights society SGAE, after the organisation missed a government imposed deadline to change its “abusive” 10% tariff.

The Spanish competition watchdog (CNMC) had ordered SGAE to propose a new tariff for concerts by 6 February. Instead the collection society filed an appeal with the High Court, Audiencia Nacional, and requested that the CNMC decision be suspended, despite the fact that the court had already ruled, in April 2009, in favour of promoters association, Asociación de Promotores Musicales – a decision confirmed by Spain’s supreme court in December 2012.

However, if the suspension is granted, the High Court would be required to secure a banking bond from SGAE to cover any possible damages – a complicated process as it would involve the court deciding what a fair tariff would be.

In the meantime, Spain’s promoters consider that they can legitimately organise shows without paying any licence fees, or paying just a provisional amount that they deem fair, because there is no longer a legal tariff.

http://www.ilmc.com/index.php/news/newshome/2659-sgae-misses-crucial-tariffs-deadline

IFPI and SGAE face scandals

Hot on the heels of the scandal engulfing Spain’s collection society SGAE – their offices and a number of private homes were raided by Spanish police as part of an investigation into the "misappropriation of funds" and nine people, including president of SGAE's Board of Directors Eduardo Bautista, were detained - comes new that the former chief of the Swiss branch of the International Federation of The Phonographic Industry, Beat Högger, has been accused of abusing his position in the trade body to gain tax breaks for his own company IPGate. According to TorrentFreak, and German journalist Christian Bütikofer, Högger allegedly employed two administrators at the IFPI through his own German company, to qualify IPGate for concessions under Germany's tax system on the basis he had a Swiss operation. Bütikofer claims this allegedly benefited Högger's company to the tune of 316,500 euros.