Governance and Integrity

Good Governance and high Integrity standards make an important foundation on which IPRO has been established more than three decades ago, and on which IPRO runs its operations from day to day. 
The governance structure is laid out in IPRO’sArticles of Association. A Board of Directors is charged with the general governance of the IPRO Foundation, strategy and finance being its main responsibilities, while supervising the daily management of the Managing Director. Repartition policies and cost deductions are also decided by the Board of Directors. The Repartition Regulations of IPRO are set and then reviewed every three years by the Board of Directors.

Board members, most of them representing mandating publishers, serve a term of maximally 3 years and can be re-elected twice, so a Board member can serve 9 years in total. Chairman and Treasurer, both independent, can also be re-elected twice in their respective roles for three-year terms. The Managing Director is appointed by the Board who also decides the remuneration scheme for the Managing Director. The annual salary of the Managing Director is published in the Annual Report.Additional jobs of IPRO Board Directors are published on IPRO’s website.

IPRO Board Directors have all signed IPRO’s Integrity Declaration upon assuming their current position. They also all sign a confidentiality agreement. At each Board meeting, members are asked to declare any conflicts of interest and or any financial interests in IPRO or related businesses.

To comply to the highest levels of integrity as agreed within the sector of collective management organisations, IPRO adheres to the Governance Code of industry trade organisationVOICE, of which it serves as a member. IPRO is also committed to the Integrity Code of Conduct and the Good Practice Handbook of VOICE. 

As a Collective Management Organisation registered in The Netherlands, IPRO is subject to supervision by the government supervisory authority CvTA (College van Toezicht Auteursrechten). CvTA supervises compliance issues as set forth in applicable Dutch law, the so-called Wet Toezicht Collectieve Beheersorganisaties voor Auteursrechten 2016, which serves in The Netherlands as the implementation of the EU Guidelines for Collective Management Organisations (2014/26/EU). 

The CvTA publishes annually asupervisory reportwith its findings on the current state of Dutch CMO’s. IPRO keeps good relations with CvTA and has not had any supervisory issues in any of CvTA’s annual reports and observations, since it became subject of government supervision.

Transparency and Accountability
IPRO operates in an open culture and is a strong supporter of optimal transparency and accountability by Collective Management Organizations. It publishes an elaborate annual report within 6 months of the closing of each financial year. 

The annual report lists collections, repartitions and cost deductions as carried out in the reporting year, as well as the running costs of its operations. It includes a transparency report on various key-indicators for the reporting year as well as across several years.

Various other information elements can be found on the IPRO website, such as:
- Articles of Association
- Repartition Regulations
- Complaints and Appeal Procedures
- Mandates
- Activities
- Board Directors and their additional jobs
- The current organisation and staff

IPRO serves and is accountable to the community of international publishers, who are represented in its Board of Directors. IPRO holds mandates from members of the International Association of Scientific Technical and Medical Publishers, STM, and indirectly through agreements with other Reproduction Rights Organisations (RROs), namely CCC, CLA, CFC and VG Wort. Mandates to IPRO are non-exclusive. IPRO distributes collections only to mandating publishers and their RRO organisations.

In respect of the event that IPRO were to receive royalty income from licensees for rightsholders which have not mandated it, it makes every reasonable effort to find the most efficient distribution mechanism for such rightsholders, either by way of a distribution to the rightsholder against an indemnification or, if appropriate, by distribution to the RRO organization in the country where the rightsholder is based. IPRO’sRepartition Regulations lay out these rules and procedures in more detail.

For questions and further information, please contactinfo@international-pro.org.