BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, CMC – The High Court has dismissed a claim filed by the Eastern Caribbean Collective Organisation for Music Rights (ECCO) Inc, challenging the regulatory framework enacted under the Copyright Act and Copyright (Collective Management Organisations) Regulations.
The Court also ordered ECCO to pay EC$10,000 (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) in costs to the St. Kitts and Nevis government.
ECCO sought to challenge the measures that established a system for the authorisation and oversight of collective management organisations (CMOs) operating in the twin-island Federation.
The regime was introduced to promote transparency, accountability, and the protection of promoters and creatives, and specifically, ECCO sought a declaration that section 4(6) of the Copyright (Collective Management Organisations) Regulations is ultra vires the Copyright Act.
It also sought a declaration that the absence of a transitional provision in section 4 of the Regulations breached ECCO’s alleged legitimate expectation and an order of certiorari to quash section 4(6) of the Regulations.
But the High dismissed all the claims, affirming the validity of the regulatory framework governing CMOs and confirming that the Regulations were lawfully enacted pursuant to the Copyright Act.
In June last year, the High Court of Justice refused an application for interim relief brought by ECCO, which sought to suspend enforcement of the 2024 Copyright (Collective Management Organisations) Regulations.
The government said then that the Court’s refusal of the injunction effectively affirmed the government’s firm stance that it has the right to implement a licensing regime to protect local rights holders and the general public from unregulated and potentially exploitative practices.
In opposing ECCO’s injunction application, the government said that ECCO had been consulted on the Regulations since 2023, had not applied for the required authorisation to operate under the new law, and had continued to issue licences unlawfully after the Regulations came into force in December 2024.
In addition, the government argued that ECCO was not in good corporate standing, having failed to file its annual returns for three consecutive years (2023, 2024, and 2025) until after the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs issued public notice.
It also said that ECCO was downgraded to provisional status by its international oversight body (CISAC) and had delayed royalty payments to creatives for years.
The Regulations are designed to ensure lawful and credible collective rights management. They protect our creative industries from opaque or improper licensing practices and empower the State to safeguard the economic rights of artists, musicians, and other copyright holders,” Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Garth Wilkin, had said then.
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