BASSETERRE: The High Court of Justice has dealt a decisive blow to the Eastern Caribbean Collective Organisation for Music Rights (ECCO), dismissing the organisation’s legal challenge in its entirety and ordering it to pay the Government of Saint Kitts and Nevis EC$10,000 in costs.
The February 19 judgment rejected all three of ECCO’s claims against the Copyright (Collective Management Organisations) Regulations, 2024 — upholding the government’s right to license and regulate organisations that collect and distribute royalties on behalf of artists.
“The Regulations are designed to ensure lawful and credible collective rights management,” said Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs Hon. Garth Wilkin. “They protect our creative industries from opaque or improper licensing practices and empower the State to safeguard the economic rights of artists, musicians, and other copyright holders.”
The ruling follows ECCO’s earlier loss in June 2025, when the High Court refused to grant the organisation an interim injunction to halt enforcement of the Regulations. At that time, the government revealed that ECCO had continued issuing licences unlawfully after the rules came into force in December 2024 and had failed to file annual returns for three consecutive years.
The government also disclosed that ECCO had been downgraded to provisional status by its international oversight body, CISAC, and had delayed royalty payments to local creatives for years — the very artists the organisation claims to represent.
The Ministry of Justice has reiterated that ECCO is not currently authorised to operate in Saint Kitts and Nevis, and that no other collective management organisation holds such authorisation at this time.