Chapter IV: Rights management

If the sums due to rights holders cannot be distributed within three years of the end of the financial year in which the income from the exploitation of the rights was received, and provided that the collective management organisation has taken all the measures provided for in article L. 324-14 to identify and locate the beneficiaries, these sums are deemed to be part of the sums that cannot be distributed.

Actions for payment of royalties collected by collective management organisations are time-barred after five years from the date on which they were collected, this period being suspended during the payment periods provided for in article L. 324-12 at the most or, if earlier, until the date on which they are paid. All right holders are informed of the distribution or payment date in an easily accessible reference document.

Collective management organisations use for actions to support creation, the dissemination of live performances, the development of artistic and cultural education and training actions for artists: 1° 25% of sums from private copy levies; 2° All sums collected pursuant to Articles L. 122-10, L. 132-20-1, L. 214-1, L. 217-2 and L. 311-1 and which could not be distributed either pursuant to international conventions to which France is a party, or…

The conditions of access to the actions mentioned in Article L. 324-17 and to the benefits of the collective management bodies financed using the sums mentioned in the second paragraph of Article L. 324-10 are based on fair criteria.