On 15 January 2026, the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) delivered its judgment in Case C822/24 (bluechip v ZPÜ), concerning a request for a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of Article 5(2)(b) of Directive 2001/29/EC (InfoSoc Directive). Said provision allows Member States to introduce an exception to the exclusive reproduction right for reproductions made by a natural person for private use (i.e. for purposes that are neither directly nor indirectly commercial), on condition that rightholders receive fair compensation (so called private copying exception). Notably, such compensation is in practice often financed through private copy levies imposed directly on devices and storage media capable of making reproductions.
The dispute at hand arose between ZPÜ, the German association of collecting societies responsible for collecting private copy levies, and bluechip, a manufacturer and distributor of computers. Under German law, manufacturers and traders must pay copy levies over devices capable of storing copyrighted works unless they can demonstrate that the products will not be used for private copying. ZPÜ argued that bluechip’s devices could be used to make copies of copyrighted works and that, for this reason, the company should pay fair compensation to rightholders under the private copying exception, even if those devices were being supplied to business customers rather than private individuals. Bluechip did not provide any evidence proving to the contrary. Ultimately, the referring German court asked the CJEU to clarify whether national law may oblige manufacturers, importers or traders to pay copy levies even when storage media are sold to commercial end users, based on a rebuttable presumption that such devices will be used for private copying.
In its ruling, the CJEU held that Article 5(2)(b) InfoSoc Directive does not preclude national legislation from requiring manufacturers, importers, or distributors of storage media capable of making reproductions to pay the fair compensation where those media are sold to business end-users, unless the liable party demonstrates that the devices are not used by natural persons to make private copies, or only used so minimally that it does not cause more than minimal harm to rightholders.
