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Reversal

In the so-called Electronic Confirmation Process (ECP), you had initially informed GEMA whether and to which extent a participation of the publishers was confirmed. Said process was not concluded until the first semester 2018. Based on the information you provided, GEMA was in a position to prepare the reversal for the years 2012 to 2016. To carry out the reversal, far more than 100 distributions had to be recalculated. The pay-out amounts (for authors) respectively debit amounts (for publishers) have now been determined based on the recalculations.

Note: Please note that the pay-outs distributed to the authors may change as part of the claims process!

Information on the supporting documents for the reversal

GEMA would like to offer you the highest standard in terms of transparency. So that our members can retrace the results of the reversal as closely as possible, GEMA is providing them with the usual account statements, but also additional detailed documents via the online service GEMA-Download free of charge. For each original distribution file, a new file with the re-calculated values will be provided so that everything can be reconstructed in detail.

The run-time for the recalculation of the more than 100 original distributions required several months. During this time, claims and objections were processed on the basis of which corrections became necessary in some cases. These corrections are - just like with normal distributions - shown separately. Wherever it was necessary to carry out corrections, members will receive files with the corrected amounts on top of the new distribution file.

Account statement

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Detailed schedules 1,4,5

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Detailed reverse payment schedule

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Frequently Asked Questions

I have received a lot of money during the reversal. Do I have to pay it back?

The entries reflect the result of the Electronic Confirmation Process. Whether money has to be reimbursed to publishers due to the internal relationship on the basis of the publishing agreements that have been concluded is something GEMA cannot judge. In the case any doubts remain, this will have to be clarified between the author and the publisher. Furthermore, it is possible that in the case of justified claims or complaints by the publishers there might be chargebacks from the authors’ accounts. Whether a claim or complaint is justified depends on each individual case.

The payout / charge appearing on my statement is not what I’m expecting. What can I do?

Please take a look at the “detailed reverse payment schedules” and the “detailed schedules 1,4, 5”, and, where applicable, all corresponding detailed schedules relating to the subsequent corrections via our online service GEMA-Download and check all entries (debits and/or credits). The amounts relate to the management of exploitation rights, but not statutory remuneration entitlements.

The charges resp. credits of the surcharges of the statutory remuneration entitlements can only be viewed in the statement from early November 2018.

More information relating to the supporting information can be found in the section “Supporting Information”.

Should you have more questions, please review the following questions in order to establish whether there is a justified complaint.

[For publishers] Have you taken part in the ECP?

The cut-off deadline for taking part in the ECP was 1.12.2017. A further grace period until the 13.01.2018 was granted. For publishers this means: work and agreements, which were submitted after the 13. January 2018, could not be taken into account to prevent reverse payments.

Important: Complaints cannot lead to the EPC being repeated. As a result, complaints for subsequent submissions of confirmation declarations or other documents and the subsequent correction of the registration confirmations are not possible.

[For publishers] Have you submitted all documents in a correct and timely manner?

To confirm the participation of publishers to GEMA payouts for the period from 1. July 2012 until 24. December 2016, publishers had to upload the necessary documents alongside the EPC list by 13.01.2018.

Important: Complaints cannot lead to the EPC being repeated. As a result complaints for subsequent submissions of confirmation declarations or other documents and the subsequent correction of the registration confirmations are not possible.

[For publishers] Were your documents technically validated?

In isolated cases lists uploaded by publishers could not be technically validated, e.g. when fields were altered manually before uploading. Please check the automatic confirmation message, which you were sent following the upload, and whether it contained a request to re-upload the documents because of a failed technical validation. If you didn’t do so, please contact our Service department.

Was there a change in the documentation of the existing works or agreements?

If changes to the works or the agreements were made during the EPC process, there could be discrepancies in the data submitted via the EPC.

In this case please contact our Service department.

Did you lodge an objection to an existing registration confirmation within the deadline?

In isolated cases it could be the case that your timely objection wasn’t fully processed, by the time the payout adjustment was being carried out.

In this case please contact our Service department.

Wenn Sie keine dieser Fragen mit Ja beantwortet haben,
liegen die Voraussetzungen für eine Reklamation vor.

Ich möchte reklamieren. Was muss ich tun?

Bitte prüfen Sie zunächst, ob eine begründete Reklamation vorliegt.

Reklamationen müssen der GEMA binnen einer Frist von sechs Monaten zugehen,
die Frist beginnt am 1.11.2018. Ferner können Reklamationen nur dann berücksichtigt werden, wenn das Ergebnis einen Mindestbetrag von EUR 5,00 pro Werk erwarten lässt.

Reklamationen müssen zudem konkrete Angaben enthalten, die eine Prüfung zulassen.

Bitte nutzen Sie hierfür folgendes Formular:

Für Urheber

Für Verlage