What is the GEMA presumption?

We are the only collective management organisation for musical copyrights in Germany. As such, we manage the rights to tens of thousands of musical works from Germany and abroad. This is also referred to as “world repertoire” and we represent it all over Germany.

By deduction it can be argued that in the case of the so-called GEMA presumption dance and entertainment music works that are used for the communication to the public belong to said repertoire. The GEMA presumption was developed by the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH). It also applies to the mechanical reproduction rights (vinyl, CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray).

In practice, this means that those using music for commercial purposes must pay licence fees to us. The exception to the rule applies where users provide detailed evidence that they only used music by creators who are not represented by us.