ECJ On Payment Of Resale Right

On 26 February 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union ("ECJ") answered a preliminary question from the French Supreme Court in Christie's France SNC ("Christie's") v Syndicat national des antiquaires ("SNA"). The ECJ offered guidance on Directive 2001/84/EC of 27 September 2001 on the resale right for the benefit of the author of an original work of art (the "Directive"). The ECJ held that the Directive allows the person whom the law designates as having the obligation to pay the resale right to transfer this obligation to another person by contract.

The objective of the Directive is to ensure that authors of graphic and plastic works of art share the economic success of their original works of art. This is achieved by the resale right. Often, the value of the work increases significantly after the work has been sold by the author. The inalienable resale right allows authors (or their heirs) to receive a royalty on the price obtained for any later resale