Copyright Act 1968

A body may apply to the Minister to be declared as a collecting society for:

all relevant copyright owners; or

specified classes of relevant copyright owners.

After receiving the application, the Minister must do one of the following:

by notifiable instrument, declare the body to be a collecting society;

refuse to declare the body to be a collecting society;

both:

refer the application to the Copyright Tribunal in the way prescribed by the regulations; and

notify the body of the referral.

If the Minister refers the application to the Copyright Tribunal, the Tribunal may declare the body to be a collecting society.

Section 153U sets out the procedure of the Copyright Tribunal in dealing with the reference.

A declaration of the body as a collecting society must declare the body to be:

the collecting society for all relevant copyright owners; or

the collecting society for classes of relevant copyright owners specified in the declaration.

If:

a body is declared to be the collecting society for a specified class of copyright owners; and

another body is subsequently declared to be the collecting society for that class of copyright owners:

the first‑mentioned collecting society ceases to be the collecting society for that class of copyright owners on the day on which the subsequent declaration is made; and

any remuneration notice given to that collecting society ceases to be in force to the extent to which it relates to relevant copyright owners included in that class of copyright owners.

The Minister and the Copyright Tribunal must not declare a body to be a collecting society unless:

it is:

registered as a company under Part 2A.2 of the Corporations Act 2001; and

a company limited by guarantee; and

all persons who are included in a class of relevant copyright owners to be specified in the declaration, or their agents, are entitled to become its members; and

its rules prohibit the payment of dividends to its members; and

its rules contain such other provisions as are prescribed, where the provisions are necessary to ensure that the interests of members of the collecting society who are relevant copyright owners, or their agents, are protected adequately, including, in particular, provisions about:

the collection of amounts of equitable remuneration payable under section 135ZZZK; and

the payment of the administrative costs of the collecting society out of amounts collected by it; and

the distribution of amounts collected by the collecting society; and

the holding on trust by the collecting society of amounts for relevant copyright owners who are not its members; and

access to records of the collecting society by its members.

If the Minister or the Copyright Tribunal has declared a body to be the collecting society for a specified class of copyright owners, the Minister and the Copyright Tribunal may refuse to declare another body to be the collecting society for that class of copyright owners unless satisfied that to do so would be in the interests of those copyright owners, having regard to:

the number of members of the first‑mentioned society; and

the scope of its activities; and

such other considerations as are relevant.