 |
|
|
NewsOctober, 13 Warner Music sues Ray-Ban owner over unlicensed music
Warner Music Group has filed a lawsuit against the parent company of Ray-Ban. The label claims the eyewear firm used hundreds of its works in social media advertisements without securing the rights. The complaint, which Billboard has obtained, accuses the Italian eyewear conglomerate EssilorLuxottica of infringing 427 copyrights held by WMG. WMG is asking for the maximum statutory damages of $150,000 (£114,000) for each work, which would come to $64 million (£48.5 million) in total. According to the label, EssilorLuxottica – owner of Ray-Ban, Oakley and Sunglasses Hut – routinely uses unlicensed music in ads shown to its more than 36 million followers on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Those videos have included recordings by WMG artists such as Charli and Dua Lipa, along with compositions from Drake, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Travis Scott. The lawsuit describes the ads as "wildly successful" at selling sunglasses and says they have brought the company billions of dollars. "Defendants used the Plaintiffs' copyrighted works to build their brand profiles and drive sales without paying any compensation to Plaintiffs," the lawsuit states. It adds that the defendants not only failed to pay for the works but, by including them in the Luxottica videos without consent, also deprived the plaintiffs and their artists and songwriters of control over how and where their art is used. In recent years, music companies have pursued a broad legal crackdown on brands that use unlicensed tracks on social media. While platforms such as Instagram and TikTok hold blanket licences that let individual users add music to their videos, commercial accounts must buy a sync licence. Brands including Chili's, Marriott and Designer Shoe Warehouse have settled legal cases over the same issue.
Photo: Cover Media |
||
|
||
