Current Challenges in the Relationship Between Slovenian Copyright Law and EU Law

The article explores the question how the new developments in the EU copyright law influence the Slovenian legislation. Presently, the Slovenian system of collective management of copyright and related rights is under scrutiny of European Commission, which recently opened infringement proceedings for failing to correctly apply the InfoSoc Directive and Collective Right Management Directive. The future Streamz decision of the Court of Justice of European Union, initiated by the Belgian Constitutional Court, could also significantly influence the Slovenian copyright rules, since the Slovenian legislator implemented the Digital Single Market Directive by similar means as Belgian legislator. One of the pressing issues in Slovenian copyright law, which was recently considered by the Higher Court of Ljubljana, is also the collection, management, and distribution of private copying levy as one of the permittable exceptions and limitations of exclusive authors rights under InfoSoc Directive. The thorough analysis of these pressing issues reveals complex intertwining of the EU and national law regarding collective management of exclusive author’s rights and of various remuneration rights. The article, focusing on legal-dogmatic approach and the analysis of legal sources using grammatical, purposeful, systematical and comparative legal methods, offers overview of Slovenia's system of copyright protection, draws attention to its possible incompatibilities with EU law, and provides possible legislative solutions.