Exclusive copy: War between repackagers and rights holders declared, no one wants to pay taxes

Still don’t understand anything about the special copying tax on refurbished smartphones? This is quite normal and is what causes disputes to continue today because the text of the law is so vague and confusing. Before we get to the heart of the matter, a quick reminder of the facts. The special copying tax has existed since 1985 and aims to reimburse rights holders for all copies of works they hold on storage devices. In 2021, another device entered the list: refurbished smartphones.

Before this date, the tax was already applied to new smartphones, but not their renewed cousins. This amount has since become equivalent to 8.40 euros. However, this new feature is not to everyone’s taste, especially those doing renovations. Three of them, Handydortmund, Wefix and SOFI Groupe, are currently still refusing to make any payments. Copie France, the organization responsible for this tax, took these three companies to court for this reason.

Custom copying tax is still a real headache

Instead of resolving the dispute, this legal action made things worse. In fact, in addition to the payments due since 2021, Copie France is now demanding from the three repackaging companies the retroactive payment of tax on all smartphone sales before the implementation of the decree. Here we are talking about fines of up to 600 thousand euros to Handydortmund, 1.7 million euros to SOFI Groupe and 2.9 million euros to Wefix.

An amount that those involved unsurprisingly refused to pay. For the latter, this is a real reversal for Copie France, which had promised that tax payment would not be retroactive in 2021. They also question the very principle of the tax, arguing that a refurbished device is exactly the same as a new one except for light cleaning, and therefore taxing it twice is not justified.

On the opposite side, Copie France argues that it is up to the repackagers to anticipate this decision, let alone the sums currently demanded of them. Still, they don’t want to pay even for smartphones resold after 2021. For this, they rely on the text itself, which is the responsibility of the administration. “producers” to pay this tax. Not to sellers, but to manufacturers. In this case, the question arises at what stage the person can be considered a producer. Are we the manufacturer when replacing the battery or screen of an existing device?

For rights holders, the answer is yes, citing both the Ministry of Culture and European law, which does not provide detailed information on this repackaged issue of private copying. The last argument in favor of sellers: according to the Intellectual Property Code, the tax will only apply to devices put into circulation and not re-circulated. In short, there is no clarity in the text and this is what both parties will oppose.

For how long ? This question arises considering the equally bleak future of the tax itself. At the end of 2022, there was talk of completely canceling the text regarding renewed devices. If this is not the case today, we will find out at the end of 2023 that a new bill may come (once again) that will shake up everything in the private photocopier sector. To be continued.

Source : informed