The Economic Consequences of Droit De Suite in the European Union

In the EU the author of an original artwork enjoys 'Droit de suite', a right to an economic interest in successive commercial sales of that work. This is intended to ensure that artists benefit from successive 'exploitations' of their work. The ensuing royalty is a percentage of the sale price. It is argued that it worsens the position of contemporary artists, but diminishes trade in the tertiary art market, is detrimental to their position on the international art market for those states introducing it and is severely anti-redistributive. It diminishes purchasers' property rights, reducing the price of artworks. This most severely affects early career artists who value the ensuing marginal decreases in income most highly, but whose work has not yet reached the secondary market.