Responsibilities

Within the framework of the Law No. 2121/1993 and Law No. 4481/2017 and Law No. 5103/2024, the Hellenic Copyright Organization (HC0) has, indicatively, the following responsibilities:

General responsibilities:

  • HCO undertakes legislative preparatory work and activities. It also:
  • provides information to the public on copyright and related rights issues,
  • represents Greece before the competent international organizations and the institutions of the European Union,
  • organizes training and educational seminars addressed to judges, lawyers, administrative personnel, authors, holders of related rights and students on copyright and related rights issues,
  • provides time-stamping services, that is, services providing a definite date in relation to works or protected subject – matters eligible to be protected by copyright and/or a related right,
  • constitutes the competent supervisor and inspection body of the collective management organizations, the independent management entities referred to in Art. 50 of Law 4481/2017, as well as of the collective protection societies operating in Greece,
  • may, exceptionally, in accordance with Art. 51A of Law 4481/2017 and in the case where the operating license of a collective management organization or of an independent management entity referred to in Art. 50 of Law 4481/2017 is revoked by a decision issued by the Minister of Culture, undertake, on an exceptional and temporary basis, the management of the rights of the beneficiaries of such an organization or of an entity referred to in Article 50 of Law 4481/2017 (A 100), for a period not exceeding two (2) years, in order to ensure the collection and distribution of the rights of the respective rightholders and to review the legality of the use of intellectual works,
  • receives the solemn declarations as provided under Law 1599/1986 from debtors, namely from the importers or from the producers of the media referred to in Art. 18 para. 3 of Law 2121/1993,
  • appoints, if requested so by any collecting society, statutory auditors for the purpose of verifying the accuracy of the content of any solemn declaration as provided by Art. 18 of Law 2121/1993,
  • if a respective agreement is not reached between the collective management organizations, the recovery and distribution method, as well as any other detail related to the distribution of the percentages of the reasonable remuneration due to the collecting societies of each category or sub-category of rightholders in accordance with Art. 18 of Law 2121/1993, is specified by a decision of the HCO,
  • informs the rightholders of copyright and related rights for any infringement of the provisions of the Law 2121/1993 that is established and therefore notified to HCO by the Financial and Economic Crime Unit (SDOE), the Police and the Customs Authorities, and for which administrative penalties are imposed (see Art. 65A para. 4 of Law 2121/1993),
  • constitutes the national correspondent for the rights provided under Law 2121/1993, in accordance with the Directive 2004/48 on the enforcement of rights,
  • assists the Committee for the Notification of Copyright and Related Rights Infringement on the Internet (ΕDPPI), established under Art. 66E of Law 2121/1993,
  • offers intermediation services for issues related to copyright, related rights and collective management.
  • draws up a list of arbitrators taking into account the opinion of the parties concerning the settlement of the disputes about the amount of the remuneration due for the use of the works
  • receives the lists with all musical works which had been publicly performed in common areas by hotels and tourist accommodation complexes, shopping centers, casinos and by those operating the common areas of public transport facilities or public passengers waiting areas of airports or ports (Articles 8 – 11 of the Law 5103/2024)
  • submits a reasoned opinion to the Minister of Culture on the possible breach of the obligations of Articles 8 – 11 of the Law 5103/2024.
  • submits a proposal on the preparation of the evaluation report of the Ministry of Culture on the implementation of Articles 7 – 14 of the Law 5103/2024.

Special responsibilities in the framework of collecting management and collective protection organizations surveillance:

  • HCO suggests to the Minister of Culture to adopt the request submitted by a collective management/collective protection organization to obtain an operating license, provided that the conditions of the Law 4481/2017 are fulfilled, and the respective organization’s viability is obvious,
  • it posts on its website the following information: the operating licenses of the collective management and collective protection organizations operating in Greece, the tariff tables issued by the collective management organizations in a machine – readable format, the agreements concluded between collecting societies and representative users associations, any infringement decisions, the notifications provided under the law for foreign collecting societies and independent management entities, and the uniform formats for the use of works,
  • it investigates -on the instructions of the Minister of Culture – cases where potential violations of the provisions of the Law 4481/2017 or of the Law 2121/1993 are respectively notified,
  • has an initiating role in the sanctioning procedure provided under Art. 46 of Law 4481/2017, as related to the compliance or non – compliance of the respective collective society with the relevant recommendation, as well as with regard to the amount of the administrative fine that should be imposed,
  • it constitutes the competent authority in Greece to inform the competent authority of another EU Member State and to provide information on the issues related to the implementation of the provisions on collective management performed by collecting societies and independent management entities established in Greece and which are operating in Greek territory and/or in another Member State.