Apple Fights Swiss Media Levy

Posted by Eric March on May 17, 2008 at 3:35 pm

Here in Canada, we have a levy on blank media to help mitigate music piracy. Many countries have this. At one point, that levy even applied to MP3 players, though it was cheap at a few bucks per device, but they were exempted by Canadian courts in 2004, and despite the CRIA’s (the Canadian sister to the RIAA) appeal to have media players reinstated as “blank media,” the Federal Court of Appeals last January rejected the Canadian Copyright Board’s appeal on the grounds that they had no regulatory authority to impose such levies.

Over in Switzerland however, things are pretty dire. The Swiss Society for the Rights of Authors of Musical Works (SUISA) collects levies on all blank recording media, whether CD, DVD, or media players sold within Switzerland, and the levies are huge. Originally, the levy was 153 CHF (Swiss Francs) per player (approx. $143 USD), but it was recently reduced as of April 1st to 42 CHF (approx. $40 USD) for a 32gb iPod Touch.

Though Apple insists that they have not passed on the cost of the levy to its Swiss customers, its recent price drop on the iPod Touch was noted to be the equivalent to the 110 CHF levy reduction. Now, Apple is fighting for exemption on the grounds that iPod Touch devices sold online are actually shipped out of Ireland, and therefore should not be subjected to the levy.

Furthermore, Apple is concerned about the imminent release of the iPhone in Switzerland. Since it has a media player component equivalent to the iPod Touch, Apple is worried that SUISA will push for an iPhone levy on those grounds. Hopefully, the courts will decide and SUISA will back down, but if they are anything like the RIAA, the Swiss may continue to be paying a premium for their devices.

(Source: MacNN)

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