News Releases

April 28, 2015
Japanese Society for Rights of Authors,
Composers and Publishers
(JASRAC)

Supreme Court Judgment

The Supreme Court, Third Petty Bench (Chief Judge Kiyoko Okabe) rendered a judgment today on the petition for acceptance of the final appeal filed by the Fair Trade Commission (hereafter “FTC”) and JASRAC against the Tokyo High Court (Chief Judge Toshiaki Iimura) decision of November 1, 2013, regarding a case that rescinded an earlier FTC decision.  The appeals were dismissed.

As a result, the Tokyo High Court’s decision, which rescinded the FTC decision (delivered on June 12, 2012) in response to JASRAC’s request for a hearing (April 28, 2009), becomes final.  The hearing procedure will resume at FTC to make another decision (Antimonopoly Act, Article 82 paragraph (2)).

While giving priority to not inconveniencing music users and trustors, JASRAC shall continue to state its argument, that the royalty collection method questioned in this case is a rational one which efficiently balances appropriate copyright protection and the smooth use of a large number of copyrighted works, and that it does not fall under private monopolization (violation of Antimonopoly Act, Article 3) as is apparent from the fact that the same collection method is widely adopted in various foreign countries.

<Reference> Chronology of the case [PDF: 11 KB]

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