Phones and tablets will cost a little less with the cancellation of the highly criticized remuneration for private copying, which was added to the tax already levied on new products. A cancellation that is only temporary…
This is a – small – victory for sellers of refurbished devices and consumers! The “royalty” for private copying on refurbished smartphones was canceled by the Council of State, which finally decided to follow the recommendations of the public rapporteur, as reported by the media The Informed. Indeed, it was strongly contested since its payment “allows” owners of storage devices of all types (smartphones, tablets, hard drives, etc.) to copy the content of a CD or DVD. However, this practice has become obsolete with the advent of streaming. In addition, it applies several times for refurbished devices – with each sale/reconditioning – which does not encourage consumers to go to this market, and therefore reduce their carbon footprint. However, the victory is half-hearted since the remuneration for the private copy was not abolished because of its absurdity, but because of a defect of form. Indeed, the commission responsible for applying the scales was incomplete during its vote last year, with in particular the absence of consumer representatives.
This deletion will take effect on 1er February 2023, which should lower the price of refurbished devices by a few euros. Note, however, that consumers who have acquired a refurbished smartphone during this period will not be reimbursed for the price of the tax, since the cancellation would not have retroactive effect – a way of avoiding too many disputes with the company Copie France, whose mission is to collect the revenue from this royalty. A sum that is still around 20 million euros, and this only for refurbished phones! And this is not even the end of this controversial system since a new vote – this time in the rules of the art – will decide the next scales…
Refurbished smartphones: the end of remuneration for private copying
You probably don’t know it, but every time you buy a computer, smartphone, tablet or any other electronic device containing storage memory, you pay a small special tax, in addition to other classics such as VAT: CPR, or remuneration for private copying. Aimed at both creators, producers and rights holders of artistic works, it compensates for losses due private copies authorized by law. The problem is that it applies to both new devices and refurbished products – with a different scale. And it is the application of this double “fee” that has made reconditioning professionals and consumer associations tick since its entry into force at the end of 2021. Because it is not trivial: the “bis” RCP indeed represents 10.08 euros – including VAT – on the final price of a refurbished smartphone with 64 GB of storage, for example. And that’s without counting on the RCP – of 14 euros in our example – already deducted from the price of the new product! A form of “double punishment” for the consumers concerned, who are looking for more to make these expensive products last… This is why the UFC-Que-Choisir and the refurbishers have vehemently contested this measure since its application, judging it totally absurd, d especially since the law is also supposed to reduce the environmental footprint of digital technology in France!
As a reminder, remuneration for private copying was introduced in France in 1985 to make those who buy storage media pay for their right to make copies of cultural works for their personal use. For example, the user can extract the pieces of music from a CD to store them on his MP3 and thus be able to listen to them everywhere. It takes the form of a fixed fixed price, determined by a scale according to its storage capacity – and not its selling price. Initially, this royalty applied to blank cassettes, CDs and DVDs, then extended to all devices capable of storing data in order to protect copyrights and rights holders. Today, new computers, hard drives, USB keys, tablets and smartphones are therefore all subject to this tax depending on their storage capacity. In November 2021, it was also extended to refurbished devices, and a new scale was put in place. Suffice to say that it has not been very well received, either by reconditioners – who consider it too high and cannot free up a margin – or by ecological associations – because it does not reduce the environmental footprint. digital in France, on the contrary. Indeed, to achieve a margin, reconditioners – and we are not talking here about giants like Black Market, which only serve as an intermediary – are obliged to raise the price of the conditioned device to compensate for the fee. In the end, it ends up being passed on to the end buyer: the consumer.
Rights holders are far from complaining about it, on the contrary, since the tax for private copying has brought them 172 million euros in 2019 just for the smartphone. The problem is that the uses have changed. From now on, the consumption of cultural works on this medium is done mainly via legal streaming platforms and, most often, paying. As a result, the user does not own the content, he only pays for the right to listen to it. And if he downloads them so that he can listen to them without the need for an Internet connection, everything is automatically deleted once the subscription is terminated. In addition, the platforms have already paid the rights holders to be able to broadcast their content. A peak! And it’s even more unfair for a refurbished device since the royalty is applied once during the initial purchase, then is applied each time the device passes into the hands of a new user. Without forgetting that increasing the prices of refurbished products means taking the risk of discouraging them from turning to this offer, which is much more ecological – the vast majority of a device’s greenhouse gases are produced during of its manufacture, and its end of life generates electronic waste. Faced with its problems, a public rapporteur from the Council of State therefore had “recommended the cancellation of the scale of refurbished phones and tablets“, as reported by the Informed End of november. In any case, let’s hope that this decision, associated with the repairability bonus, can push buyers a little more towards refurbished, as the planet badly needs it…