Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio

The Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC), in its role as national authority for competition protection, opened an investigation against SOCIEDAD DE AUTORES Y COMPOSITORES DE COLOMBIA (SAYCO), in order to establish whether this company abused its dominant position in the copyright management market.

Likewise, the Superintendence opened investigation against eight (8) individuals linked to SAYCO to determine if they had collaborated, facilitated, authorized, executed and/or tolerated the alleged conduct.

According to the preliminary investigation, SAYCO would have subordinated the asset management of some forms of communication to the public, of musical works, to the submission, total or in "packages", of all forms of communication. This, even when the different forms of public communication are independent of each other.

Also, SAYCO would have obstructed the access of copyright holders and third parties to other forms of copyright management other than collective. The investigated Company would have implemented, on the one hand, tools and procedures that would discourage and prevent the free individual management of copyright holders over the communication to the public. On the other hand, with its behavior, SAYCO would have obstructed access to the market for third-party competitors with management procedures different than collective.