A federal court judge has fined Vortek Systems, a Montreal-based electronics retailer, nearly one million dollars for failing to pay the private copying levy. The company was ordered to turn over the unpaid levy amounts ($1.65 million plus interest) along with a penalty of just over $900,000. Vortek denied that it was selling blank CDs.
Make no mistake – along with its distortion on the market, the levy's "pennies" (as derided by CRIA) has become big money for the industry which it will fight hard to preserve.
Misleading summary
The Federal Court ruling is available here:
http://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fct/2006/2006fc283.shtml
It says that while Vortek initially denied selling blank CDs, later they admitted to selling about 7.5 million.
Most of those were sold after the CPCC had contacted them to get them to pay the levy, but they decided not to pay, hoping the levy would be ruled unconstitutional. It wasn’t, and yet they continued to refuse to pay, and continued to sell blank CDs.
There’s a hint in the ruling that it’s likely to lead to the bankruptcy of the company, but relatively small financial penalty to the two men who ran it. They aren’t responsible for these debts.