Cap. 546 Art. 15Charges.

(1) The re-use of documents shall be free of charge:

Provided that the recovery of marginal costs incurred for the reproduction, provision and dissemination of documents as well as for anonymisation of personal data and measures taken to protect commercially confidential information may be allowed.

(2) The proviso to sub-article (1) shall not apply to the following:

(a) public sector bodies that are required to generate revenue to cover a substantial part of their costs relating to the performance of their public tasks and a list of such bodies shall be published online;

(b) public undertakings;

(c) libraries, including university libraries, museums and archives.

(3) In the cases referred to in sub-article (2)(a) and (b), the public sector bodies concerned shall calculate the total charges according to objective, transparent and verifiable criteria as set out in the rules issued under this Act.

The total income of those bodies from supplying and allowing re-use of documents over the appropriate accounting period shall not exceed the cost of collection, production, reproduction and dissemination and data storage, together with a reasonable return on investment, and, where applicable, the anonymisation of personal data and measures taken to protect commercially confidential information. Charges shall be calculated in line with the accounting principles applicable.

(4) Where charges are made by the public sector bodies referred to in sub-article (2)(c), the total income from supplying and allowing re-use of documents over the appropriate accounting period shall not exceed the cost of collection, production, reproduction, dissemination, data storage, preservation and rights clearance, and where applicable the anonymisation of personal data and measures taken to protect commercially confidential information, together with a reasonable return on investment. Charges shall be calculated in line with the accounting principles applicable.

(5) Where a public sector body decides to charge an applicant a fee, it shall advise him accordingly and inform him that he has the right to appeal to the Administrative Review Tribunal as provided under article 24(3) if he feels that the fee is excessive: Provided that if the fee is a standard fee established by rules under this Act, the Tribunal may only inquire into whether the rules have been correctly applied.

(6) A public sector body may waive any fees payable in respect of a particular application if, in the opinion of the authority -

(a) the fee payable is so small as to be not worth collecting; or

(b) payment of the fee would cause financial hardship to the applicant, bearing in mind the applicant’s means and circumstances.

(7) Where a public sector body fails to meet the time limit set by article 11, it shall not charge any fee for the re-use of a document.

(8) The re-use of the following shall be free of charge for the user:

(a) subject to the Schedule, the high-value datasets, as listed in accordance with item 1 of that Schedule;

(b) research data referred to in article 8A.