Bookster claims it paid royalties for each book lent but not to the publishing houses

Bogdan Georgescu, one of the founders of Bookster – the innovative library turned into a book delivery service, currently engaged in a dispute with the publishing houses, said that while it operated as a public library, it paid the royalties in line with the relevant legislation to the relevant collective intellectual property management body CopyRo, Ziarul Financiar reported.

The royalties seem to be the essence of the lawsuit between the parties: while Bookster claims it paid its dues lawfully but not to the publishers, the publishers claim Bookster evaded paying the royalties.

"The biggest publishing houses in Romania requested that Bookster pay them the copyright fee for the public loan that Bookster was paying to the collective management bodies," he explained the essence of the lawsuit won by Bookster in the first instance.

Separately, the competition body slapped several major publishing houses and bookstores for alleged coordinated decisions not to sell books to Bookster. The subjects will appeal the fine.

The Romanian Publishers Association (AER), when launching the case against Bookster, claimed that Bookster "is buying books like any commercial company, but then lend them out, behaving like a public library and making profit without paying royalties by author," according to Economedia.ro quoting Ionuț Trupina, General Manager of the Humanitas bookstore.

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