Answer given by Mr Breton on behalf of the European Commission
18.7.2022
The judgment of the Court of Justice on Article 17 of the directive (EU) 2019/790 (Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, the ‘Copyright Directive’)[1] confirmed that the provision of this Article is not in breach with fundamental rights, provided that the guarantees set out in the article are applied by Member States.
This is in line with the position expressed by the Commission’s Guidance on Article 17 of the directive 2019/790 issued on 4 June 2021[2]. The judgment also provides further indications for interpreting Article 17, which the Commission will take into due account in its analysis of implementation by Member States of the Copyright Directive.
So far around half of the Member States transposed Article 17 of the Copyright Directive into national law. Hence, the implementation is still ongoing and considering that the Court’s judgment was only issued on 26 April 2022, the Commission has not yet carried out a final legal assessment of Member States’ implementing measures.
Therefore, the Commission is not yet in a position to issue any opinion on individual national implementations of Article 17 of the Copyright Directive.