Media companies urge Commission to turn down copyright proposal[fr][de] 

In March 2007, CISAC proposed a set of draft commitments  in order to set a deadline to the Commission's proceedings. Essentially, these commitments were: 

• On membership:  CISAC and its members agreed to allow copyright holders to move freely between different collecting societies.
• On territoriality:  Collecting societies agreed to group up and grant cross-border licenses for music on the internet, over satellite and cable. The licenses are, however, subject to a complicted system of requirements and limitations, which, CISAC says, is necessary to "ensure that authors and their works do not suffer the effects of a potentially harmful downward spiral in royalty rates".
• On exclusivity:  Collecting societies agreed to delete the exclusivity requirement from their contracts. 

The Commission decided, on 14 June 2006, to market-test the commitments . 

On 10 July 2007, however, the Commission received a letter signed by companies including France Telecom , Liberty Global , SBS Broadcasting , Orange , RTL , ProsiebenSat1 , Telenet , ORF , Cable Europe , Deutsche Telekom  and by the German Association of Private Broadcasters and Television Operators (VPRT ). The letter, which is addressed to EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, urges the Commission not to accept settlement proposals from CISAC which, the signatories say, "raise substantial issues as regards application of competition law and internal market rules, cultural diversity, and the relationship between smaller and larger representatives of rightsholders". 

The signatory companies say that "the settlement porposals - instead of remedying the consumer harm identified by the European Commission - would undermine the current system of licensing the global music repertoire as a single package and lead to a costly, inefficient and fragmented licensing system for music rights." They also state: "The proposed remedies woud...lead to the disappearance of many smaller author's rights societies."

The letter goes on to suggest that the Commission: "The collecting societies amend their proposals to provide for an economically meaningful licensing system, including guarantees that the remedies in this competition case are not undermined by withdrawal of repertoire while they are in effect." The companies conclude: "If CISAC cannot offer such a solution, the Commission must adopt a decision finding an infringement of EC competition rules."