Article 14 of the European Commission’s proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market 2016 on transparency in contractual relations between authors and performers and their powerful counterparts includes a proportionality assessment in two parts: i) a proportionality assessment between the value of the revenue and the administrative burden resulting from the obligation (Art.14(2)) and ii) the ‘significance of the contribution’ to the overall work or performance (Art.14(3)). Here I will focus on the second paragraph and offer a thought-experiment to explain why it is not likely to be an effective measure.