Although last year the Constitutional Court declared illegal the controversial digital tax implemented by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero during his mandate, the current government has decided to reinstate it.
This has been approved by the Council of Ministers, although it is a different text from the previous one, which aims to adjust compensation for private copying to what is established in Community law.
It was the Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo , who was in charge of explaining the new decree law that establishes a payment that will be charged to equipment, devices and digital media and that is expected to be implemented in a staggered manner.
In this way, during the first year, provisional rates will be established, which will be set at 1.10 euros for mobile phones and 3.15 euros for tablets and will have to be paid by the manufacturers.
After this period, the amounts will be adjusted to market reality.
"The decree law replaces the current model of fair compensation financed belgium phone number by the General State Budget with a model based on the payment of an amount to be paid by the manufacturers and distributors of equipment, accompanied by an effective mechanism for exceptions and disbursements," explained the Minister, according to the newspaper El Español.
He also assured that management entities constituted as legal entities will be responsible for managing the invoicing of compensation as well as payment exceptions and refunds.
These exceptions refer to copies made by public administrations for professional use, those made by legal entities or individuals acting as "final consumers" and those made by those with authorization who will be exempt from payment.
Until now, this fee was included in the General State Budget, but the new decree law has been justified both by the need to establish a new compensation system and by adaptation to the European framework in order to avoid sanctions.