Frequently Asked Questions about the Committee (EDPPI)

1. How was the Committee established, what is its purpose and who comprises it?

The Committee for the Notification of Online Infringement of Copyright and Related Rights (EDPPI) was established by means of Law 4481/2017, which introduced Article 66E into Law 2121/1993 (Greek Copyright Act). According to this provision and the respective implementing Ministerial Decisions, EDPPI constitutes an administrative authority to which holders of copyright and/or related rights may address, under the conditions laid down by law, with the aim of achieving the immediate and effective cessation and prevention of recurrence of the infringement of their rights that takes place exclusively on the internet.

In addition, the Greek legislator provides for a live-blocking procedure. More precisely, paragraph 10A of Article 66E concerns the prevention of imminent and large-scale infringements with regard to either events of national or global viewing which are going to be transmitted simultaneously with their conduct (live sports or cultural events) within the Greek territory, or in relation to audiovisual works which are going to be broadcast or communicated to the public or made available to the public, at a time and place individually chosen by them. In this case, there must also be an urgent need to prevent immediate, serious and imminent danger and/or irreparable damage to the public interest and/or to holders of rights. Within this context, it is provided that sports organizers may also file an application before EDPPI regarding an imminent infringement of their rights, as provided for in the Greek sports legislation, and specifically in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 84 and paragraph 2 of Article 84A of Law 2725/1999 (Government Gazette A' 121).

The objective and role of EDPPI is to operate as an out-of-court mechanism where rightholders may submit the predetermined forms and other files, which are publicly available for their convenience, and to act within the timeframes provided by the law in order to deal rapidly with such infringements that take place on the internet. In this regard, EDPPI may order either the removal of the illegal content from the targeted websites or the blocking of access, depending on the merits of each case at issue. The competence of EDPPI is related to copyright and related-rights infringements, meaning the determination of the violation of the absolute and exclusive rights to copyrighted works or other subject matters of protection, while the special procedure of paragraph 10A concerns live events and exclusively audiovisual works as aforementioned, and in accordance with the relevant Joint Ministerial Decision (400772, Government Gazette B' 5186/30.09.2025) (see more in "Legislation").

According to the law, the Committee has three members, and consists of:

• the President of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Copyright Organization (OPI)
• a representative of the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT)
• a representative of the Hellenic Personal Data Protection Authority

The members of the Committee are appointed by decision of the Minister of Culture regarding its establishment and composition (see more in "Members of EDPPI").

The entire work of EDPPI in legal, technical and administrative terms is carried out by the legal and IT experts, and the staff of OPI in collaboration with its Director.

2. What can holders of copyright and related rights achieve by filing an application before the Committee?

The procedure before EDPPI constitutes an administrative procedure, as an alternative to recourse before courts which is widely admitted as both cost and time effective. EDPPI allows, within a short period of time (at most within 60 days for the basic procedure of paragraph 4 of Article 66E and within 15 days for the live-blocking procedure of paragraph 10A) any copyright or related-rights holder (or the sports events organizer exclusively within the context of paragraph 10A) who files an application claiming the unlawful provision of access, on the internet, to their works or other subject matter of protection or live events, to achieve (if the respective application is submitted admissibly and the conditions of the law are met) the immediate removal or blocking of access depending on the circumstances and without being deprived of their right to initiate legal proceedings. However, if the applicant had initiated legal proceedings before submitting an application to EDPPI or decided to do so during the examination of the case by EDPPI, the relevant application is merely entered in the file.

3. Who is enabled to submit an application to EDPPI?

Any person (either a natural or legal person) whose copyright or related rights are infringed, or are going to be infringed, on the internet (e.g., authors, performers, publishers, broadcasting (radio and television) organizations, collective management organizations or collective protection organizations on behalf of the rightholders they represent, etc.), as well as the universal or specific successor thereof. In addition, within the context of the procedure of paragraph 10A, organizers of sports events have also been included as applicants before EDPPI. It should be clarified, though, that sports events organizers do not have copyright or related rights under Law 2121/1993. Their application before EDPPI shall pertain to an imminent large-scale infringement of their specific rights over sports events as provided in sports legislation, specifically in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Article 84 and paragraph 2 of Article 84A of Law 2725/1999 (Government Gazette A' 121).

Additionally, rightholders can submit an application in case of infringement of copyright and/or related rights through the offering of products or services on the internet, either through advertising or promotion.

4. In which cases can someone file an application to EDPPI?

Rightholders can submit an application to EDPPI in any case of infringement of copyright and/or related rights which has taken place or is going to take place on the internet under the conditions laid down by Article 66E of Law 2121/1993.

Within the context of the procedure of paragraph 4, the infringement must have already taken place, while in the procedure of paragraph 10A, an imminent and large-scale infringement is prevented provided that the conditions of this specific provision are cumulatively met. In this latter procedure, organizers of sports events are also entitled to submit an application to the Committee provided that they hold the rights to which they claim the imminent infringement, i.e. they have not transferred them to broadcasting organizations in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Greek Sports Law. It shall be noted that this procedure does not apply to infringements of copyright and/or related rights, or of the rights of organizers of sports events, which are committed or may be committed by end users.

If the application is admissible and successful, EDPPI issues a decision on the grounds of the specific rules of the law and on the merits of each case at issue.

In the case where, following the issuance and execution (mostly by ISPs) of the decision of EDPPI, a (new) infringement or a threat of a (new) infringement in relation to the protected content included in the said decision is targeted by the rightholder, the latter may again have recourse to EDPPI asking for the issuance of a supplementary act in accordance with subparagraph 9 of paragraph 10A. In this case, there is no payment of a fee, and as in all cases, the technical means through which the infringement has already occurred or is threatened to take place is irrelevant.

Furthermore, rightholders can submit an application to EDPPI in the case where an exclusively large-scale infringement is imminent regarding events of national or international broadcasting that are going to be transmitted simultaneously with their conduct (live events) (paragraph 10A), namely regarding sports events and cultural events. This procedure also applies to audiovisual works, specifically when they are going to be transmitted or communicated to the public or made available to the public at a time and place individually chosen by them (on demand). The details and overall infrastructure of this procedure have been specified in the Joint Ministerial Decision 400772 (Government Gazette B' 5186/30.09.2025) (See "Legislation").

There is also, in this case, a supplementary procedure available to rightholders. More precisely, the latter may submit a supplementary (free of charge) application to EDPPI in the case where the decision of EDPPI is circumvented, or in the case where a repetition of the infringement of the rights over the content referred to in the decision has recurred. In this case, EDPPI issues a supplementary relevant act provided that the information/new evidence submitted by the rightholder is found to be true.

Within the context of the live-blocking procedure (paragraph 10A), rightholders have two options: they either submit a supplementary application, along with new evidence, before EDPPI, or they may file an application directly to the special service of EETT. These procedures concern the "transfer" of the unlawful transmission or communication to the public or making available to the public of live events or audiovisual works (as determined by EDPPI) to new IP addresses and/or domain names, which pertain to the ones included in the previous blocking order/decision of EDPPI. However, the said opportunities are not limited to the "transfer" of the unlawful conduct, but are available to rightholders in any case where the decision of EDPPI is circumvented by any means.

If an application is submitted to the alert service of EETT – even during the conduct of the event – the latter issues a blocking order in accordance with paragraph 10(A)(2)(d). For the maintenance of the validity of this order, the rightholder shall submit a distinct application to EDPPI within 5 working days from the date when the blocking order was released, and pay the relevant fee. EDPPI, following a recommendation by EETT and taking into account especially the elements submitted by the rightholders and the order of the competent monitoring service of EETT, issues a supplementary act to its initial decision.

5. Which are the conditions for the admissibility of the application before EDPPI?

• Advance payment of the examination fee that applies to each distinct procedure
• Use of the pre-determined application that is posted on the website edppi.gr
• Use of the specific EXCEL file that is posted on the website edppi.gr (request.xlsx)
• Submission of any document that is mentioned in the application as mandatory, as well as any other information/files for the proof of the entitlement of the applicant as a rightholder under the Law and their respective legal standing. In addition, the applicant shall submit evidence proving that the infringement has either occurred or is imminent on the internet (indicatively screenshots and any other material appropriate for this purpose).
• For the procedure of paragraph 4, the applicant shall, before submitting an application to EDPPI, make use of any corresponding notice and takedown procedure that may be provided by the administrators/owners of the webpages at issue, which has not been successful (i.e. there was no compliance) within a reasonable time period.

6. Which are the examination fees?

The examination fees vary in relation to the application to be submitted to EDPPI within the context of the respective procedure. In particular, the amounts of the fee that shall be paid prior to the submission of the application are distinguished as follows:

A. For the submission of an application under the procedure of paragraph 4 of Article 66E of Law 2121/1993, the fees, based on the relevant Joint Ministerial Decision, are as follows:

• €300, if the application includes 1 domain name
• €500, if the application includes 2 to 5 domain names
• €700, if the application includes 6 to 10 domain names
• €1,000, if the application includes 11 to 50 domain names
• €1,000, if the application concerns the blocking of access to IP addresses which are used for continuous real-time transmission (streaming). Each such application includes no more than fifty (50) IP addresses.

Please note that the above amounts do not include VAT (+24%).

B. For the submission of an application under the procedure of paragraph 10A of Article 66E of Law 2121/1993, the fees, on the basis of the relevant Joint Ministerial Decision, are as follows:

• €400, if the application includes 1 domain name or 1 IP address or 1 uniform resource locator (URL)
• €700, if the application includes 2 to 5 URLs or domain names or IP addresses
• €1,200, if the application includes 6 to 10 URLs or domain names or IP addresses
• €1,500, if the application includes 11 to 50 URLs or domain names or IP addresses
• €1,500, if the application concerns the blocking of access to IP addresses used for transmitting content by continuous data streaming (live-streaming)

Please note that each such application cannot include more than 50 URLs or domain names or IP addresses in total.

• €7,000 in the case where the applicant's request is for the blocking of access for a maximum duration of 12 months.

C. For the issuance of a supplementary act by EDPPI in order to maintain the validity of the order of the special alert service of EETT, and for the examination of the relevant application of item (e) of subparagraph 2 of paragraph 10A of Article 66E of Law 2121/1993, the amount to be paid has been defined as follows:

• €300 (for each application)

Please note that the above amounts do not include VAT (+24%).

The application review fee shall be deposited at the National Bank (SWIFT (BIC) code ETHNGRAA), credited to the bank account of OPI with IBAN GR8101101510000015129605323. A copy of the deposit receipt with the applicant's full details must be submitted together with the application to EDPPI and the accompanying files and information. The fee is a formal prerequisite for initiating the procedure and is therefore non-refundable under any circumstances, including in the event that the case is closed.

Therefore, you must pay the fee before submitting your application to EDPPI.

7. Which are the consequences in the case of non-compliance with EDPPI's decision?

By means of a new decision of EDPPI, in accordance with the relevant Joint Ministerial Decision, a fine ranging from €500 to €1,000 may be imposed for each day of non-compliance. The specific amount of the fine to be imposed is defined in the body of the Decision of EDPPI.

8. Is there a possibility to initiate legal proceedings against the Decisions of EDPPI?

Yes.

• For decisions of EDPPI which are issued within the context of paragraphs 4 and 9 of Article 66E: an appeal may be filed before the Athens Administrative Court of Appeal within a 60-day deadline from their notification.

Neither the time-limit for bringing an action nor the bringing of an action shall suspend the enforcement of EDPPI's decision.

Against the decision of the Administrative Court of Appeal, an application for annulment may be filed before the Council of State according to relevant provisions.

• In relation to the Decisions issued under paragraph 10A: it is provided that the administrators and/or the owners of the domain names or IP addresses that are referred to in the Decision of EDPPI may bring an action against it before the Athens Administrative Court of Appeal within 10 days from the notification of the Decision to them.

The deadline for filing the action and the filing itself do not suspend the execution of the Decision of EDPPI.

In the case where an action has not been brought within the above deadline or in the case where it is rejected, the blocking of access ordered by the Decision of EDPPI becomes final.

In the case where the action succeeds because the Court found that the conditions provided by the Law in this special procedure (live blocking) were not met, the rightholder who requested the issuance of the Decision of EDPPI shall pay compensation to the administrator or to the owner of the domain name(s) or IP address(es) who brought the action and who was affected by the Decision.

See the infographic with the procedure for reporting copyright infringements on the internet as referred to in paragraph 4 of Article 66E of Law 2121/1993.