Many authors, such as of literature, music, art or photography, have joined collective management organisations, which are associations under private law. The reason is that creative people are statutorily entitled to receive appropriate remuneration for each use of their works. Especially in an increasingly digitised world, works can be used copiously and in multiple ways. In individual cases, it is almost impossible to obtain the required licences from each rightholder prior to the use of a work, the more so as the rightholders are not known in many cases. For example, participants in a concert as holders of related rights (Leistungsschutzberechtigte) would also have a corresponding claim for remuneration. It would be complex and hardly possible to identify these individuals. Conversely, creative people often do not know when and how use is made of their work.

Collective management organisations solve this problem. They collectively grant the licences for the rights of their rightholders to users and distribute the royalties from the licences to the rightholders according to a specific scheme. In Germany, 13 collective management organisations currently conduct business with an authorisation from the DPMA. In 2022, they generated total revenues of 1,866.222 million euros. The amount accounted for by each collective management organisation is listed in the table below.

Each collective management organisation acts as a trustee for their rightholders and often has a de facto monopoly position, as collective management organisations are usually specialised in a certain area of creative working (for example, GEMA is specialised in musical works, VG Wort in literary works). For this reason, collective management organisations are subject to government supervision by the DPMA pursuant to the Collective Management Organisations Act (CMO Act — Verwertungsgesellschaftengesetz). As supervisory authority, we act solely in the public interest. In this context, we also make assessments on the basis of submissions made by rightholders or users. We ensure that the organisation of the collective management organisations complies with the statutory provisions. Furthermore, we monitor whether the collective management organisations fulfil their obligations pursuant to the CMO Act both towards rightholders and towards users, examining the rules of the distribution schemes according to which the revenues are distributed to the rightholders and whether the collective management organisations fulfil the requirements for setting tariffs that determine which amount must be paid for which use. To fulfil our supervisory duties, we have, among other things, a comprehensive right to obtain information and can participate in the meetings of the various bodies of the collective management organisations.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the collective management organisations had started to hold meetings of the supervisory bodies and their committees and meetings of members and partners in a virtual form. In 2023, too, meetings of the bodies were often held in a virtual form or, such as the annual meetings of members, in a hybrid form. This makes it easier for members to participate in the meetings, allowing them to be more involved in the decisions of the collective management organisations.