Claims

What is a claim?

You can file a claim if you disagree with the amount of fees paid or the non-payment of fees. You can submit a claim if you are:

  • A BumaStemra author or publisher member
  • A sister society with whom BumaStemra has a representation agreement

You can submit a claim in MijnBumaStemra. Queries can be submitted for three situations:

  • Incorrect share – You disagree with the share of the remuneration
  • Incorrect settlement – You disagree with the amount of the settlement
  • Missing settlement – You did not receive payment when you feel you should have

How do you submit a claim?

You can submit a claim in MijnBumaStemra. You should do this within two calendar years of the settlement in question. This is called the complaint period. You cannot submit a claim about a settlement older than this.

Good to know:

  • Submit a claim after we have sent you a settlement. To make sure your settlement is correct, we recommend that you register your (music) works with us as soon as possible. If your work is not registered with us, we cannot pay you for it. By registering your work on time, you avoid extra hassle later.
  • When a claim is submitted in MyBumaStemra, we usually have all the information we need to start an enquiry. If you want to share additional information with us, you can send attachments with your claim.
  • If you want to submit multiple queries, you can use the ‘copy’ option. This means you don’t have to fill in some things twice.

If you have any questions about submitting a claim, please contact us at claims@bumastemra.nl or via our Customer Contact Center.

How long does it take to process a claim?

We will do our best to deal with your queries as soon as possible. We will always send you an email about the progress of your claim. In normal cases, it takes us six to eight weeks to deal with your claim. It may take longer if your claim is not straightforward. In this case, we may take a maximum of 12 months. We will let you know the status of your claim every three months at least.

If your claim is about international use, it may take longer than 12 months to resolve. In these cases, we are very dependent on information from our sister societies.

What happens after submitting a claim?

You will receive confirmation from us within five working days that we have received your claim. You will always get a reference number and an initial update in this email. We may need additional information, which we may ask for in this email.

If you disagree with the outcome of your claim

You can submit your claim to a special committee if you disagree with the decision by BumaStemra. This committee will review your claim and the outcome.

Please resubmit your claim within two weeks of the decision, either by email or post. Address your claim to:
info@bumastemra.nl with the subject Claim: for the attention of Esther Maijer or:

BumaStemra
Customer Contact Center
Attn. Esther Maijer
Postbus 3080
2130 KB Hoofddorp

Disputes Committee

If you also disagree with our committee’s decision, then you can refer your claim to the Disputes Committee. It is important that you submit this to the Disputes Committee within three months of the recent decision.