The Belgian broadcaster RTBF has struck a €6.5 million settlement with PlayRight, the Belgian management company for musicians' rights, after the latter claimed several million euros in unpaid payments on previous contracts.
In 2016, PlayRight sued the French-speaking public service broadcaster for breaching a 1989 agreement which, according to Le Soir, specified that RTBF agreed to pay the artists involved 6% of the earnings from the cable television transmission of its own projects.
However, because the payments were to be transferred into the account of a joint company formed by the signatory unions that was never established, RTBF deemed the agreement null and void and argued that the deadline for these payments had passed.
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Nonetheless, the broadcaster was ordered to pay these sums by a court in 2017, with a €6.5 million settlement agreed and validated by the courts, with distribution to affected artists slated to commence this year.
