First of all, this law enjoys the support of our Organization and satisfies our constant requests to the Ministry of Culture in recent times.
Our persistent observations and proposals, throughout this period, led to the desired result of a legislative regulation-intervention, within the law, by which the financial outstanding issues of AEPI are settled, both towards Greek and foreign creators & beneficiaries, as well as towards the former employees of the private company (compensation).
During the recent meeting of the Standing Committee on Cultural & Educational Affairs of the Parliament, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of AUTODIA, Yiannis Glezos, after an official invitation, made a relevant intervention regarding the importance of the legal settlement of a long-standing pending situation in our sector.
The new provisions of articles 115-120 of Law 5324/2026 specifically regulate collective management issues (issues of reasonable remuneration, as well as various deductions for social, cultural or educational services), but mainly open the way for the distribution of AEPI rights to their rightsholders, which remain undistributed or uncollected to this day.
Specifically regarding AEPI issues, we would like to inform you of the following:
The extensive article 120 attempts to definitively resolve the long-standing outstanding issues concerning the management of undistributed rights to the copyright holders, as well as the management and collection of AEPI's outstanding claims against copyright users (invoiced uncollected rights) Specifically:
- The bankruptcy trustee's authority to manage undistributed amounts and collect debts that were invoiced before the revocation of AEPI's license is explicitly recognized.
- The procedure for distributing these amounts to the rightsholders, former AEPI members, is clearly defined, as well as the way in which AEPI's physical and digital archives will be utilized.
- The rightsholders are notified and invited to collect the amounts due to them by announcement from the trustee bankruptcy. The announcement is posted on the websites of the Copyright Organization (OPI) and the Ministry of Culture and is sent by the trustee -by letter or email- to the Collective Management Organizations of musical copyrights.
The possibility of offsetting is provided for users who have already paid amounts directly to the creators, ensuring transparency in financial pending matters.
AUTODIA closely monitors the developments and interpretations of the new provisions, is at the trustee's disposal for any further cooperation and continues to work with dedication to defending your interests and ensuring remuneration for the uses of your works. We will continue to inform you of any new developments. We remain at your disposal for any clarification.
