Spain’s Supreme Court has upheld the annulment of the operating licence held by the Spanish Society of Authors’ Rights (SEDA). The organisation cannot continue managing rights unless it obtains fresh administrative authorisation.
The court’s Administrative Litigation Chamber declined to admit SEDA’s appeal against the National Court’s judgment, finding that it had not sufficiently demonstrated the grounds required for a cassation appeal to proceed.
Authorisation ruled unlawful
The decision leaves standing the National Court’s judgment of 21 May 2025, which ruled unlawful the authorisation granted in 2020 by the Ministry of Culture, then headed by José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes.
Unison Rights, an independent management operator specialising in music rights, brought the challenge. The National Court recognised its standing as a direct competitor of SEDA and upheld its claim.
Unison had already participated as an interested party in the authorisation process, alongside the General Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE), as recorded in the resolution published in Spain’s Official State Gazette on 10 September 2020.
Three statutory requirements unmet
The National Court found that SEDA met none of the three requirements set by intellectual property law for authorising a rights management organisation:
- Statutes that comply with the applicable rules.
- Effective capacity to manage rights.
- A contribution to the public interest in protecting intellectual property.
Before the licence was granted in 2020, a report from the ministry’s Subdirectorate-General for Intellectual Property had identified shortcomings in SEDA’s statutes. The minister nevertheless authorised its operations on the expectation that those problems would be corrected later, an approach the National Court found incompatible with the principle of legality.
SEDA was established in 2019 as an alternative to SGAE, backed by more than two hundred authors and several music publishers, at a time when SGAE’s reputation had deteriorated substantially. Its authorisation was intended to introduce competition into a market dominated by very few operators, where collective management organisations such as SGAE and Audiovisual Media Authors’ Rights (DAMA) operate alongside independent businesses such as Unison.
SEDA previously pledged to seek a new licence
Following the National Court’s judgment, SEDA president and musician Patacho Recio defended the organisation’s continued operations.
“The judgment is not final and we are going to continue operating: collecting and distributing money among our members.”
Recio also said SEDA would apply for a licence again if the Supreme Court upheld the annulment.
“We have been operating for five years. We have demonstrated that SEDA is viable and meets all the legal requirements.”
No statements from SEDA or Unison on the Supreme Court’s decision were available on Tuesday.
Transition arrangements remain unclear
Unresolved questions include what will happen to the repertoire entrusted to SEDA by authors and publishers, its contracts with users, and money already collected but awaiting distribution. Details of the transition, and whether SEDA has submitted a new application to the Ministry of Culture, remain unconfirmed.
The case also comes amid a regulatory gap. Plans for the Spanish Office for Copyright and Related Rights, which was intended to supervise rights management organisations, have stalled again following the dissolution of parliament.
The ruling establishes that applicants must demonstrate compliance with the legal requirements before a licence is granted.
