5a.10.2 Foreign sister societies

Swiss societies conclude mutual rights administration agreements with collecting societies abroad. These contracts mean that societies become competent in asserting the rights of members of foreign partner collecting societies in their country in addition to asserting the rights of their own affiliates. This network of agreements guarantees that the Swiss organisation is well represented across its area of activity. For example, when it comes to music rights, the Federal Supreme Court found that, in Switzerland, SUISA manages around half of all of the performance rights of the world’s repertoire of non-theatrical music (BGE 107 II 57; Journal des Tribunaux 1981 I 361 et seq.; see also BGE of 9 March 2005, in sic! 2005, 562, c. 3.2). In real terms, SUISA represents about 1.7 million authors and editors, whose work is used by around 90,000 people a year.