Express statutory provisions dictate that numerous remuneration claims under copyright law must be asserted by a collecting society (see for example § 54 UrhG [Copyright Act] in relation to charges on blank cassettes and recording devices, § 20 b UrhG on cable retransmission rights and § 27 UrhG on the hire of videos and DVDs).
A collecting society is a society approved and supervised by the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) as a supervisory authority, as is the VGF.