The Artist´s Resale Right

The EC has passed a directive to give artists a royalty, calculated as a percentage of the sale price, each time their work is sold. The droit de suite, or artist’s resale right, is an attempt to put artists on an equal footing with other authors of copyright works such as writers, composers and performers by ensuring they receive a royalty on sales of their work.

The droit de suite is not a new concept. The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works directs that authors of original works of art should benefit from a droit de suite. It has been an essential element of France’s intellectual property law since 1920 and it exists in the laws of 11 Member States of the EU.