262.7—Verification of royalty payments.
(a) General.
This section prescribes procedures by which any Copyright Owner or Performer may verify the royalty payments made by the Designated Agent; Provided, however, that nothing contained in this section shall apply to situations where a Copyright Owner or a Performer and the Designated Agent have agreed as to proper verification methods.
(b) Frequency of verification.
A Copyright Owner or a Performer may conduct a single audit of the Designated Agent upon reasonable notice and during reasonable business hours, during any given calendar year, for any or all of the prior 3 calendar years, but no calendar year shall be subject to audit more than once.
(c) Notice of intent to audit.
A Copyright Owner or Performer must file with the Copyright Office a notice of intent to audit the Designated Agent, which shall, within 30 days of the filing of the notice, publish in the Federal Register a notice announcing such filing. The notification of intent to audit shall be served at the same time on the Designated Agent. Any such audit shall be conducted by an independent and qualified auditor identified in the notice, and shall be binding on all Copyright Owners and Performers.
(d) Acquisition and retention of records.
The Designated Agent shall use commercially reasonable efforts to obtain or to provide access to any relevant books and records maintained by third parties for the purpose of the audit and retain such records for a period of not less than 3 years. The Copyright Owner or Performer requesting the verification procedure shall retain the report of the verification for a period of not less than 3 years.
(e) Acceptable verification procedure.
An audit, including underlying paperwork, which was performed in the ordinary course of business according to generally accepted auditing standards by an independent and qualified auditor, shall serve as an acceptable verification procedure for all parties with respect to the information that is within the scope of the audit.
(f) Consultation.
Before rendering a written report to a Copyright Owner or Performer, except where the auditor has a reasonable basis to suspect fraud and disclosure would, in the reasonable opinion of the auditor, prejudice the investigation of such suspected fraud, the auditor shall review the tentative written findings of the audit with the appropriate agent or employee of the Designated Agent in order to remedy any factual errors and clarify any issues relating to the audit; Provided that the appropriate agent or employee of the Designated Agent reasonably cooperates with the auditor to remedy promptly any factual errors or clarify any issues raised by the audit.
(g) Costs of the verification procedure.
The Copyright Owner or Performer requesting the verification procedure shall pay the cost of the procedure, unless it is finally determined that there was an underpayment of 10% or more, in which case the Designated Agent shall, in addition to paying the amount of any underpayment, bear the reasonable costs of the verification procedure.