A supreme court has ruled that taxi cab drivers in Finland must pay royalty fees to record companies if they play music in their cab while driving a passenger.

The court is ordering drivers to pay 22 euros ($40USD) annually.

“The sum is fairly small … but, of course, higher expenses result in higher prices for customers,” said Nina Nizovsky of the Finnish Taxi Association, the country’s taxi driver union.

This issue began when a cab driver refused to pay royalty fees for the music played in the cab.

Currently, consumers pay royalties on any type of blank media as well as some publicly-performed material.






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