Private copying: "dumb phones" now have a new tax in France

Basic mobile phones, nicknamed "dumb phones" in opposition to smartphones, are now subject to new taxation in the name of private copying in France.

Racky, basic phones? At a time when the mobile phone market is full of smartphones, each more powerful and multifunctional than the other, ultra-simple mobiles (also called feature phones) are unexpectedly resisting the high tech tidal wave. . Including in France, where 2.9 million of these mobiles were sold in 2016, out of the 20.2 million laptops.

And that, the Commission for the remuneration of the private copy does not ignore it. Proof of this is with the publication in the Official Journal, this Tuesday, December 1, of a decision taken on November 16 establishing a new scale to tax these basic devices. They are also sometimes described as “dumb phones” (“dumbphones”, as opposed to the smartphone, or intelliphone).

This decision, reported on Twitter, sets four tax thresholds, depending on the storage space of the mobile:

The very small space left to the mobile user to save content is one of the characteristics of these “dumb telephones”, which are generally limited to providing the central functions of a telephone: receiving and making phone calls, exchanging SMSs and managing a telephone directory. Quite logically, this austerity is reflected in the price of the stupid phone, which amounts to just a few tens of euros.

Scales revised in 2012, 2018 and 2020

In fact, this new scale corrects and refines the previous table established by the Commission for the remuneration of private copying. Its role is to determine which media can be taxed, and how much, in order to "compensate" for saving works for oneself, on the grounds that the rightholders would suffer economic harm as a result of the existence of an exception to copyright.

This exception allows anyone to make a private copy of a work, which has been legally obtained, in a private and family setting, without needing to obtain the green light from the rights holder. The Commission was set up in 1985. It has since adapted to each technological development, regularly including new devices to be taxed.

In 2018, the old scale provided for a single price for basic telephones. In fact, the table dedicated to "memories and hard disks integrated into a mobile telephone allowing the listening of phonograms or the viewing of videograms" provided for a fixed amount of 4 euros for mobiles with a recording capacity of up to 8 Go. In fact, the new scale is much more progressive.

The Nokia 301, a simple, basic phone. // Source: Ralph

This price scale in 2018 was itself an evolution of a previous grid, dating from 2012. to a calculation providing for a rate of 0.7 euro per gigabyte, and that up to 8 GB. Up to this storage capacity, the amount could therefore be 5.6 euros.

In fact, the new table put in place at the end of 2020 presents lower taxation than in 2012 and 2018, even if the relevance of this private copying remains highly contested, because it assumes that recordings necessarily occur. works protected by copyright, whereas the uses of a dumbphone can also be limited to simple telephony.

In any case, this framework will only enter into force as of January 1, 2021, as stated in Article 4 of the decision: "this decision will be published in the Official Journal of the French Republic and shall enter into force on the first day of the month following its publication”. If you wanted to equip yourself or someone close to you, it is better to wait a few more weeks to benefit from the (small) reduction.