'Convenience Store Music Usage Fee' of 20,000 KRW per Month Charged by KOSCAP... Court Recognizes Only 237 KRW

Citizens using the checkout counter at a convenience store in Seoul.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA) filed a lawsuit against convenience store operators demanding a performance right usage fee calculated at 20,000 KRW per month, but only usage fees in the 200 KRW range per month were recognized, effectively resulting in a loss.

According to the court on the 16th, the Seoul Central District Court Civil Division 63-2 (Presiding Judges Park Chanseok, Lee Minsu, Lee Taewoong) recently ruled in the first trial of the damages claim lawsuit filed by KOMCA against BGF Retail, the operator of the convenience store CU, ordering "the defendant to pay the plaintiff 34.72 million KRW." This is only about 1.2% of the approximately 2.92 billion KRW claimed by KOMCA.

In January 2020, KOMCA filed a lawsuit claiming that BGF Retail infringed performance rights by playing music via digital audio transmission (webcasting) for 18 months in CU convenience store locations, demanding 20,000 KRW per month per store.

The court recognized BGF Retail's infringement of performance rights, consistent with the Supreme Court's judgment in the past Lotte Hi-Mart case, but ruled that the amount KOMCA could collect was not 20,000 KRW per store but an average of about 237 KRW.

Furthermore, the court stated, "Based on the distribution status by store area, the average monthly usage fee for all stores is 1,186 KRW," and "Considering the characteristics of the convenience store industry, the amount is reduced by 80%, and this reduced amount is calculated as the amount the defendant must return." It also pointed out, "There are currently no regulations for collecting performance rights fees specifically for the convenience store industry," and "(Convenience store) locations have relatively short customer dwell times and very limited space to stay, so the degree of performance rights infringement is relatively minor."

Previously, in 2016, the Supreme Court partially ruled in favor of KOMCA in a damages lawsuit concerning Lotte Hi-Mart's infringement of performance rights, ordering "the defendant to pay the plaintiff approximately 940 million KRW." The Supreme Court held that performance usage fees (performance rights fees) could be collected even from business sites under 3,000㎡.

At that time, KOMCA proposed standards charging 20,000 KRW for stores between 50 and 100㎡ and 90,000 KRW for stores over 1,000㎡. Subsequently, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism introduced revised standards significantly lowering the amounts to 2,000 KRW for stores between 50 and 100㎡ and 10,000 KRW for stores over 1,000㎡, excluding stores under 50㎡ from the target.

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