Overview

• On July 17, 2025, the Bundesgerichtshof ruled that Germany’s private-copy levy under the Urheberrechtsgesetz applies solely to sales of physical devices and does not cover pure cloud services
• The court held that the 2001 EU Copyright Directive does not require member states to impose private-copy fees on online storage providers
• Judges found no unintended gap in the statute, concluding that lawmakers deliberately excluded cloud services from levy obligations
• The case originated with a ZPÜ application and follows earlier rejections by a DPMA arbitration panel and the Bavarian appellate court
• Justices noted falling levy revenues as users shift to cloud storage and indicated that only Parliament can fill the resulting legislative gap