Germany | GEMA vs IFPI on RingTones Tariffs

GEMA vs IFPI - Arbitration Procedure on a General Agreement concerning Ring Tones 
IFPI referred the matter of tariffs charged by GEMA for mobile phone ringtones in December 2003 to the Arbitration Board for a decision, contending that the rates were too high.
The Arbitration Board decided to reject the industry’s reference on 27 February 2006 – due to IFPI’s limited representation of the relevant stakeholders (only 25 of IFPI’s members are actually content providers), considering that IFPI could not assert a valid claim that it was a user of the rights targeted by the proceedings.  This decision applies to all IFPI members, including those ones who make recordings and transform them into digital carriers.