BHA, BRC and other Interested Parties v PPL
Copyright Tribunal, 19 October 2009
19 Oct 2009
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Silks from Blackstone Chambers represented both sides in a recent landmark Copyright Tribunal Decision concerning the Tariffs for playing background music in shops, offices, restaurants, pubs, and hotels.
Silks from Blackstone Chambers represented both sides in a recent landmark Copyright Tribunal Decision concerning the Tariffs for playing background music in shops, offices, restaurants, pubs, and hotels. Pushpinder Saini QC, instructed by GSC, represented PPL, who had issued the Tariffs. Robert Howe QC, instructed jointly by Denton Wilde Sapte and Eversheds, represented a consortium of large retailers, and the retailers’, pubs’ and hotels’ trade bodies, to challenge the tariffs.
The new Tariffs were introduced by PPL in 2005 after a change in the law allowed them to charge for playing music on radios in public places. In its Decision, the Copyright Tribunal rejected the new Tariffs and re-imposed the old ones, with some minor adjustments. The Tribunal also exercised its unusual power to backdate its order, to 1 January 2005, so that PPL will be required to pay back most of the extra sums it has collected since then.
