Judgment_paragraph 37 · Asociación Multisectorial de Empresas de la Electrónica, las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación, de las Telecomunicaciones y de los contenidos Digitales (AMETIC) v Administración General del Estado and Others (C-263/21)

37Given the practical difficulties in identifying private users and obliging them to compensate holders of the exclusive right of reproduction for the harm caused to those rightholders by those users, it is open to the Member States to establish a ‘private copying levy’ for the purpose of financing fair compensation, chargeable not to the private persons concerned but to those who have reproduction equipment, devices and media and who, on that basis, in law or in fact, make these available to private users. Under such a system, it is for the persons having such equipment to pay the private copying levy. Accordingly, the Member States may, under certain conditions, apply the private copying levy indiscriminately with regard to recording media suitable for reproduction, including where the final use of such media does not meet the criteria set out in Article 5(2)(b) of Directive 2001/29 (judgment of 22 September 2016, Microsoft Mobile Sales International and Others, C‑110/15, EU:C:2016:717, paragraphs 31 and 32 and the case-law cited).