The Starlite festival must pay almost 364,000 euros to the SGAE for evading copyright

2023-10-30 22:40:04

The Starlite Marbella Festival has been sentenced by the Provincial Court of Madrid to pay 363,993 euros to the General Society of Authors and Editors (SGAE) for non-payment of copyright. The sentence refers to songs performed in the 2017 and 2018 editions of the contest. Bendeus Productions AIE, organizer of the Marbella event, must also pay late payment interest and the costs of the appeal trial.

The organizing, managing, financing and producing company of Starlite brought artists such as Miguel Bosé, Joaquín Sabina, Manuel Carrasco, Sting, Elton John, Anastacia and the Beach Boys to its stage in the Nagüeles quarry in 2017. In 2018 Pet Shop Boys, Steven Tyler, Miguel Poveda, Joan Manuel Serrat and Rosana, among others, played there.

The ruling details that the organizers asked the SGAE for authorization to use in both editions the songs whose rights it manages, both to pay what corresponded to the national artists and for their agreements with entities from other countries, which in turn will be shared with the authors. .

Discrepancy

The SGAE granted permission and issued the corresponding invoices, but Bendeus Productions AI disagreed with the amounts and did not pay them, claiming not to know what the amounts claimed corresponded to, which were not broken down in the billing nor were they accompanied by an economic report. Given the non-payment, the SGAE took Starlite to court in 2020.

The festival organizers maintained that some artists had given their authorization “so they should be excluded from the claim.” They also justified their non-payment by saying that the SGAE rates were considered “abusive” in a resolution of the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), final after a ruling by the Supreme Court in 2019.

By rejecting Starlite’s arguments, the Court dismissed the appeal filed by the procedural representation of Bendeus Productions AIE against the ruling of the Commercial Court No. 5 of Madrid, which confirmed “in all its terms.”