What the ACCC does

  • We have an interest in copyright when it impacts competition.
  • We publish copyright guidelines to help the Copyright Tribunal determine copyright remuneration.

What the ACCC can't do

  • We don’t get involved in individual copyright disputes.
  • We don’t set copyright remuneration.

On this page

What we do in copyright

We have an interest in certain copyright issues

It is broadly accepted that the granting of copyright and intellectual property rights rarely causes competition concerns.

The ACCC is aware of some examples where these rights can result in market power. These cases generally occur with collective licensing. For this reason, we have an ongoing interest in copyright issues.

Specifically, our interest comes from:

  • the crossover of competition policy and intellectual property policy
  • rules and functions in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and the Copyright Act 1968.

We develop copyright guidelines

The ACCC has produced copyright guidelines to support the Copyright Tribunal of Australia to perform its functions.

Under the Copyright Act 1968, the Copyright Tribunal is required to have regard to the copyright guidelines in certain proceedings, when requested by a party.

The guidelines are also used by collecting societies and copyright users to negotiate reasonable copyright remuneration for blanket licences outside the Copyright Tribunal.

The legal basis of our functions

These rules and our functions are in section 157A of the Copyright Act 1968.

Copyright projects

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