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Distribution Rules: Decision of the Federal Institute for Intellectual Property

The Federal Institute for Intellectual Property has approved the following amendment as well as a complete re-editing of SUISA's Distribution Rules:

By SUISA — 21 February 2023

Photo: Andreas Greber

Follow the respective link to the wording of the decision, available in German only, however. The individual amendments to the Distribution Rules are published in German, French and Italian in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SHAB/FOSC).

“Change in allocation of income under Tariff A /Amendment of point 5.4” published in the SHAB/FOSC of 21.02.2023

Tariff A concerns the Swiss Radio and Broadcasting Company (SRG). Tariff A currently provides for payment of an overall remuneration of CHF 32.7 million per year by SRG to SUISA. This Tariff and the relevant licence agreement entitle SRG to produce and disseminate radio and television broadcasts and also permit certain online uses. Hitherto, Tariff A revenue was also allocated to distribution categories 1A to 1E for works used online. That was justifiable as long as broadcasting and online offers related to the same content. However, in the case of the new stand-alone “Play Suisse” online offer, this is no longer always the case. Accordingly, a new share from Tariff A will be allocated to distribution category 22S for this offer. This share is proportional with the percentage of SRG’s investment cost in “Play Suisse” compared with its overall costs.

"Complete re-editing of the Distribution Rules" published in the SHAB/FOSC of 24.02.2023
The Distribution Rules have been re-edited with a view to improving transparency and legal certainty. The re-editing consisted in:

  • Re-ordering the chapters in Part 1 of the Distribution Rules by inverting chapters 3 and 6. The new order better reflects the logical sequence of SUISA’s processes.
  • A general re-editing designed to replace outdated terminology and reword certain phrases to make the text more intelligible. None of these changes have a material effect.
  • The introduction of gender-inclusive language based on the federal guidelines for gender-inclusive language (Leitfaden “Geschlechtgerechte Sprache”) issued by the Swiss Federal Chancellery and other documents including the guideline on inclusive writing published by the University of Geneva (for the French language version of the Distribution Rules). No gender-related changes were made in the Italian version of the Distribution Rules, however, since the relevant policy has yet to be clearly defined and is not used in official texts.