KT and LGU+ File Administrative Lawsuit Against Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Over Music Copyright Fees

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Eun-mo] KT and LG Uplus have filed an administrative lawsuit against the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism regarding music copyright fees and are taking joint action.

According to the industry on the 11th, KT and LG Uplus filed an administrative lawsuit against the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism at the Seoul Administrative Court on the 10th. The lawsuit demands the cancellation of the amendment to the music copyright fee collection regulations by the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA), approved by the ministry in December last year.

Earlier, on December 11 last year, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism approved with modifications the amendment to the music copyright fee collection regulations submitted by KOMCA. The amendment introduced a new clause for 'video transmission services' applicable to OTT platforms, effective from this year, with rates starting at 1.5% and increasing to 1.9995% by 2026.

In response, on the 5th of last month, the OTT Music Copyright Countermeasure Council (OTT Music Council), composed of three OTT companies?Wavve, TVING, and Watcha?filed a lawsuit requesting the cancellation of the Ministry's approval of the amendment to the music copyright fee collection regulations. The OTT Music Council argued that the approval was illegal both procedurally and substantively. They claimed that the ministry's approval of the amendment favoring KOMCA violated the principle of equality and constituted an abuse and deviation of discretionary power. The amendment applied higher rates and increases only to OTT platforms compared to 0.5% for SO (System Operators) and 1.2% for IPTV (Internet TV), and included monthly fees and annual coefficients not applied to other platforms.

They also pointed out that KOMCA's demand to apply the same 2.5% standard used for the global OTT Netflix should be reconsidered, stating, "Usage standards should be set fairly in line with services provided equally under Korea's copyright collection system."

KT and LG Uplus also cited as reasons for the lawsuit ▲the amendment imposes excessive burdens on OTT operators compared to similar platform operators ▲lack of proper opinion collection procedures ▲and KOMCA's failure to clearly present the basis for collecting 2.5% of sales, instead requiring OTT operators to prove unfairness.

A KT official explained, "Although this lawsuit is procedurally separate from the lawsuit filed by existing OTT companies, the essence of the lawsuit is the same," and added, "Since 2016, we have been jointly responding with LG Uplus regarding copyright fees used for IPTV, and because the service structures are similar, we decided to take joint action."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.