I have been ignoring the requests from SACEM for 200€ for Droits D'Auteur for some years now but I am getting cold feet. Leaving aside the morals about 'contributing to the musicians', I am wondering if the SACEM contributions is really a legal obligation or not.
The worry about this most recent demand is that there is a box to tick to say that we do not provide any modes of diffusion and I am reluctant to sogn and return the form with that box ticked.
We run a small b&b without TV's in the rooms but our two gites do have TV's.
What are you other b&b's doing/ Paying or not?
regards
geoff
yes thank you Richard for that.
As Ian has said, it may be that gites are treated differently from Chambres d'hotes in this respect.
I will await fiurther 'illumination ' on the subject
regards
geoff
http://reussirsamaisondhotes.com/2014/01/15/rappel-lordre-juridique-et-legal-des-chambres-dhotes/
Précisons que ce document interministériel fait suite aux contentieux judiciaires initiés en 2013 par le syndicalisme hôtelier pour concurrence déloyale. Pour autant, il ne faut pas en déduire que les prestataires de chambres d’hôtes ne respectent rien. Comme souvent, les pratiques illégales sont le fait de quelques brebis galeuses ou résultent de la méconnaissance des règles en vigueur. Il s’agit avant tout de calmer les ardeurs de certains acteurs du tourisme et de remettre dans le droit chemin quelques prestataires peu scrupuleux.
So, if I understand 'le petit voix' - tell them you don't have music of TV and they'll go away happy because it was the hoteliers union who forced them info making a statement, rather than a political strategy to go after naughty chambres d'hotes owners....... I think?
We recently received an invoice from them after registering with the Chamber of Commerce. Our accountant advised us to ignore it at present, as there is a long running dispute between SACEM and Gites de France. GDF do not believe that Gites come under the jurisdiction of the relevant act, and at present this has not been resolved. So her advice was to wait and see how this dispute pans out.
From what I can gather it does cover Chambre d'hotes and hotels, but the Gite area is a bit vague.
As with most disputes here, it could run for years!
Don't take this as gospel, but it is the information we were given.
I don't have really stong feelings on this Alexander - but presently I pay a TV licence because I have a TV which I use to play my own DVD's and I never watch TV. So I am paying a TV licence and so presumably are my B&B guests at their homes even though they are not watching their TV's because they are staying with me. So everyone is paying their tax for this anyway. Why another additional tax for the same thing?
I would find this difficult to justify. Can you ?
regards
geoff
We paid one year, as law abiding citizens. We have no TV's in the rooms nor in the gîte, just radio & music for breakfast and dinners. After that one year we told them that we have stopped playing music, so they stopped invoicing.
They do perform inspections around the country, so it's a bit like the radars on the roads. You might get flashed, or you might not.