The European Commission announced on January 25 that it called on the European Court of Justice to sanction Poland over its failure to implement the bloc’s copyright rules.
Poland could be slapped with an €87,000 fine per day for its failure to incorporate into its laws the EU directive on copyright and related rights, and multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online use.
Adopted nearly four years ago, the directive should have been transposed into member states’ national legislation by April 2016.
In the case of Poland, Brussels had sent two reminders to Warsaw but failed to receive satisfactory responses.
As reported by Radio Poland, the Polish government has said that work is underway to introduce new copyright laws which are in line with the European directive.
Poland can avoid sanctions if its laws are in line with EU rules by the time the court hands down its decision.
In other news, Brussels has also decided to launch a case against Poland for what it claims is Warsaw’s failure to follow the EU’s defence procurement rules and awarding defence contracts directly to national suppliers.
“EU public procurement legislation helps improve the value of taxpayer money by requiring all public contracts above a certain threshold to be put out for tender respecting the principles of transparency, equal treatment and non-discrimination,” the European Commission said in a statement.
In this case, Poland has two months to respond.
