Related rights for media companies
In June 2025, the Federal Council issued a message on the amendment of the Copyright Act. As part of the revision, new related rights are to be introduced for media companies. The bill provides that large online service providers should pay remuneration to media companies for the use of text and image snippets.
Digitalisation has resulted in online services (browsers, social media and multimedia platforms) using more and more journalistic content. These offers rely primarily on services provided by journalistic media. The text and image snippets used in this context are not protected by copyright because they are too short. As a result, such uses by online services do not have to be remunerated even if they compete with the offers of media companies obliged to bear the production costs for the related content.
Regulating such uses by online service providers requires an amendment of the Copyright Act, namely the introduction of related rights for journalistic media. In December 2021, the Federal Council recognised the need for action and instructed the administration to prepare a draft consultation document. The consultation report published in June 2024 (in German: Beilage_01_Ergebnisbericht) showed that the proposal to introduce related rights for media companies was basically welcome. In June 2025, the Federal Council referred the message on the new related rights to Parliament.
In practice, the bill (Federal Act on Copyright and Related Rights (Copyright Act, CopA), (Related rights for media companies) introduces an obligation for large online service providers to pay remuneration for the use of snippets. Only online service providers with an average annual number of users corresponding to at least ten per cent of the Swiss population would be obliged to pay remuneration. Journalists would be entitled to a reasonable share of this remuneration. A collective rights management organisation would be entrusted with the management of the rights in the media content.
The copyright bill proposed by the Federal Council does not extend to AI uses. The Federal Council believes these should be handled in the context of the Gössi motion (24.4596) “Better protection of intellectual property against misuse by AI”. The competent Transport and Telecommunications Committee of the National Council rejected the bill and instructed the Federal Council to prepare a more comprehensive proposal which would also encompass the protection of journalistic content against free use by artificial intelligence providers. Accordingly, the concerns of the existing copyright bill are to be incorporated into the implementation of the Gössi motion “Better protection of intellectual property against AI abuse”.
The Swiss collective management organisations are open to the planned legislative amendment. A positive aspect of the bill is that it is based on the mandatory collective management system with tariff procedures and distribution by the collecting societies. It makes sense in this regard to move away from the previous system of remuneration based on the “user's income.” Moreover, the collective management organisations support the principle that journalists should be entitled to a share of the remuneration claims of the media companies. For the complete position paper of the collective management organisations (in German and French), see here: Stellungnahme der Verwertungsgesellschaften.
Comments by Swisscopyright
(only available in French or German)
2309_Session-letter_prise-de-position-FR.pdf
Related rights for media companies: Statement by the collecting societies (only in German)
(dated August 16, 2023)
Further Information
(some information is only available in French and German)
Message dated June 20, 2025: Message on the amendment of the Copyright Act (Related rights for media companies (FR)
Bill revision of the Copyright Act of June 20, 2025: Federal Act on Copyright and Related Rights (Copyright Act, CopA) (Related rights for media companies (FR)
Federal Council press release on the bill of June 20, 2025: Related rights for media companies (FR)
Information from the IGE on related rights for media companies: Compensation of news media by major online service providers
Consultation on the revision of neighbouring rights for the media (dated September 15, 2023)
