Peruvian Authority Fines Luxury Hotel Over Unauthorized Use of Copyrighted Music

By Espinosa Bellido Abogados

In November 2025, Peru's National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI) imposed a fine of S/ 150,656 (approximately US$ 40,000) on a luxury hotel for playing music in its guest rooms without paying the correct royalties. The penalty followed an investigation initiated by the Peruvian phonographic producers' collective, which demonstrated that the establishment had carried out "acts of public communication" of protected recordings via televisions in its guest rooms, connected to a satellite-TV service, over a period from January 2017 to February 2024 (excluding some pandemic months). 

According to INDECOPI's resolution, the use of these sound recordings constituted a violation of copyright law because the hotel did not secure authorization or pay the required remuneration to producers, even though the producer-rights society had issued formal demands. 

The authority used Supreme Decree No. 032-2021-PCM to calculate the fine. That regulation establishes a methodology for determining administrative penalties and allows for aggravating factors, including when there is a profit motive. INDECOPI concluded that by providing music in the rooms, the hotel was enhancing the guests experience in a way that generated economic benefit, justifying a penalty factor of 150%. 

In addition to the monetary sanction, INDECOPI ordered the hotel to pay the remuneration earned to the rights-management entity for the entire period of unauthorized use. That amount was set at US$ 4,263.93, including value-added tax. 

The hotel was also required to pay the administrative costs of the process and was registered in the "Register of Infringers" under Peru's copyright legislation, which may have future legal implications. 

Under Peruvian copyright law —specifically Decreto Legislativo N° 822— the communication of sound recordings to the public requires a remuneration to producers of those recordings. The law defines a public communication as any act by which one or more people, gathered or not, can access a work without prior distribution of copies, by any means now known or to be invented. 

A judicial-administrative precedent established that hotel rooms do not necessarily qualify as a private or "domestic" sphere for these purposes, meaning that playing music in guest rooms is treated as a public communication. 

In its official communications, INDECOPI has reminded businesses—including hotels, restaurants, and transport companies—that they are required to pay royalties when they use protected music, television programming, or films. 

The law also provides that, in case of non-compliance, fines may be imposed in addition to the obligation to pay earned remuneration. 

Producers and composers may manage these rights via collective management organizations. In Peru, UNIMPRO (for phonographic producers) and APDAYC (for authors and composers) are among the societies recognized for managing such rights.