Section 37b of the Copyright Act contains a provision on the appropriate and proportionate remuneration of authors. This provision also applies to performing artists (Section 68 (4) of the Copyright Act).

This is intended to guarantee that artists receive fair and appropriate remuneration when others use their artworks or performances. 

Flat-fee remuneration is permissible if it if it gives sufficient consideration to the scope of the rights usage. Furthermore, remuneration is only appropriate if it corresponds to customary and fair market conditions. 

Example: You are a freelance artist, and a TV channel wants to make a documentary about your career and your art. They want to show some photos of your artwork in the documentary. The TV station would like to pay you a flat fee for reproducing, broadcasting, and making your works available to the public. This is permissible. The level of remuneration must be based on what is usually granted to other artists for the same scope of use.

Example: You are an actor. Your employment contract states that you agree to transfer all your rights to your future performances to your employer. This arrangement is permissible, but only if your granting of rights is fairly remunerated, for example by means of overpayment in accordance with collective agreements.

If rights holders belong to a professional group which has a collective agreement, the remuneration stipulated therein is deemed appropriate. Collecting societies can also issue remuneration regulations.

Info: For an explanation of the term ‘collective agreement’, see the chapter on labour law. 

The Austrian Cultural Council has also drawn up Fair Pay Guidelines to establish fair pay for people working in the field of arts and culture. Visit the  Austrian Cultural Council’s website for detailed information. 

In copyright law—as in many other areas of law—there are "immorality" limits. This means that contracts in which there is a blatant disproportion between performance and remuneration are invalid ("adhesion contracts"). If you have concluded a contract in which someone can use your works or your artistic performance for a particularly low, unfair fee, the contract could be deemed void and thus cancelled.