Common Music Group has requested the courtroom to dismiss a $200 million lawsuit filed by Limp Bizkit and its frontman, Fred Durst, alleging unpaid royalties and different allegations.
In a movement to dismiss filed in California on Friday (November 22), UMG writes that Durst et al.’s “grievance relies on a fallacy” and “must be dismissed with prejudice”.
Durst and Limp Bizkit sued UMG final month, claiming that the main music firm “designed and carried out royalty software program and programs that have been intentionally designed to hide artists’ (together with Plaintiffs’) royalties and maintain these income for itself.”
The band’s unique submitting, which you’ll learn in full right here, claimed additional that their “discovery of UMG’s design flaw in its royalty software program is systemic and impacts not solely Plaintiffs however probably a whole lot of different artists who’ve unfairly had their royalties wrongfully withheld for years”.
It added: “UMG’s creation of such a system, whereas holding itself out as an organization that prides itself on investing in and defending its artists, makes Plaintiffs’ discovery of UMG’s scheme all of the extra appalling and unsettling”.
The grievance states that Durst by no means acquired royalties from UMG, regardless of Limp Bizkit having bought greater than 45 million data for the reason that band signed within the Nineties with California indie Flip Information, with distribution from UMG’s Interscope.
In keeping with the movement filed by legal professionals for UMG on Friday, communications between Limp Bizkit’s enterprise supervisor and a Senior Director within the Royalties Division at UMG “eviscerate [the] declare” that it was solely after the band’s enterprise supervisor contacted UMG in April 2024 that Limp Bizkit et al “found this fraud.”
UMG says that these communications present that over a yr earlier, an exec in its Royalties Division had “unilaterally and affirmatively reached out to that very same enterprise supervisor” — named as Paul Ta at Stage 4 Enterprise Administration LLC — and “suggested him of the necessity to “arrange a vendor profile for Limp Bizkit” in order that the corporate might “begin making royalty funds” to the band.
In keeping with UMG, in response, Ta said that “all members of Limp Bizkit however one” (together with Fred Durst) had “bought/assigned their share” of royalties to others, and that “accordingly, no royalties have been payable to Durst or the opposite recognized members of the band”.
Added UMG: “In different phrases, Plaintiffs’ complete narrative that UMG tried to hide royalties is a fiction. Mr. Ta’s assertion to UMG relating to the sale/task was apparently an error, which he realized some fifteen months later when he once more communicated with UMG’s Royalties Division, and Plaintiffs concede thereafter receiving thousands and thousands of {dollars} in funds from UMG.”
“Plaintiffs however introduced this swimsuit alleging breach of contract and fraud on their ‘suspici[on]’ that they’re owed extra royalties, and looking for rescission of the events’ agreements, amongst different aid.”
UMG’s submitting on Friday, which you’ll learn right here, defined additional that the band’s enterprise supervisor contacted Common’s Royalty Division once more on April 9, 2024, and ” corrected his prior misstatement and suggested that ‘many of the Limp Bizkit members have solely assigned 13 their respective share of publishing royalties’ and he was not conscious of the band assigning their artist royalties to some other firms”.
With this “new data in hand”, UMG claims in its movement to dismiss that it “then started the method of acquiring the required types and financial institution data to start paying out royalties to the band”.
UMG says it paid Limp Bizkit $1.03 million in again royalties in August 2024 and paid Flawless Information $2.3 million in “again revenue participation” the next day.
Common says that it then indicated that each one “excellent royalties and income” had been paid, however “regardless of these funds, on September 30, 2024, Limp Bizkit served UMG “with a 22 formal Discover of Rescission of the Flip Settlement, the Recording Settlement, and the 23 Flawless Settlement (the ‘Rescission Discover’).”
UMG provides that, when it rejected the Rescission Discover, Limp Bizkit filed the present lawsuit towards the music firm asserting “at least fifteen state (and one federal) putative claims for aid” together with breach of contract, breach of fiduciary obligation, fraudulent concealment and different claims.
The lawsuit additionally seeks compensation for different artists who labored with UMG via Durst’s Flawless Information. It additionally asks the courtroom to return the copyrights UMG holds on these artists’ works,Music Enterprise Worldwide
