VOCABULARY - IDIOMS

Who pays the piper calls the tune

Meaning:

one who pays for something controls it.

Examples:

  • We have limited input, because he who pays the piper calls the tune.
  • We also know that he who pays the piper calls the tune.
  • In English we have a phrase: "He who pays the piper calls the tune."
  • He who pays the piper calls the tune or, as we say in my part of the world, ‘No money, no music’.
  • Even children know that he who pays the piper calls the tune, and it is the Member States who pay.
  • However, this should not be at the expense of the patent holders, whose innovations help our economy to develop. Instead, the principle should be: he who pays the piper calls the tune.