Copyright case: Compensation for unintentional infringement, Portugal

The Court of Appeal confirmed that playing phonograms in a night club requires authorisation from and payment to the relevant right holders (performers and artists). On the question of damages, the Court confirmed that the award of punitive-like damages should be limited to cases of serious and repeated infringement. In the present case, as this threshold was not met, the night club had to pay the regular tariff just like any licensee.

Case date: 23 May 2017

Case number: 193/14.0YHLSB.L1-1

Court: Court of Appeal of Lisbon

A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.