Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst filed a lawsuit in opposition to Common Music Group (UMG) in a federal court docket in California on Tuesday, October 8 for $200 million for allegedly unpaid royalties. UMG has since responded to the lawsuit with a really quick assertion that makes their emotions fairly clear: “Plaintiffs’ complete narrative that UMG tried to hide royalties is a fiction.”
Based on a report by Rolling Stone, UMG claims they paid Limp Bizkit $1 million in again royalties after their supervisor arrange a vendor profile and in addition gave Durst‘s report label Flawless Data $2.3 million
“Regardless of these funds, on September 30, 2024, Plaintiffs served UMG with a proper Discover of Rescission of the Flip Settlement, the Recording Settlement, and the Flawless Settlement,” wrote UMG. “When UMG rejected the Rescission Discover, Plaintiffs filed the current motion, asserting a minimum of 15 state (and one federal) putative claims for reduction.”
UMG is in search of a dismissal of the lawsuit, which a consultant for Limp Bizkit is predictably not thrilled about.
“When somebody is caught red-handed, their first response is usually to rent very costly exterior regulation companies who first, as a matter after all, strive something to dismiss the go well with when they’re in bother with the information,” mentioned the consultant. “On this case, we imagine UMG is utilizing a typical, formulaic, well-trodden technique of reaching for any escape route by desperately greedy at technicalities.”
As a recap, Durst filed the lawsuit in opposition to UMG for allegedly unpaid royalties and asking for a void of Limp Bizkit‘s contract. The lawsuit additionally seeks compensation for artists that labored with UMG by way of Durst‘s personal Flawless Data, in addition to asks for the copyrights of all works by Flawless Data artists to be launched from UMG to Durst.
The lawsuit claims that Durst by no means obtained royalties from UMG, solely advances previous to recording the albums. Durst additional claims that UMG promised royalties as soon as these advances had been recouped, which by no means occurred. Bloomberg additional notes that UMG allegedly informed Durst‘s representatives that they had spent $43 million on Limp Bizkit‘s music, and that Durst by no means obtained royalty statements as a result of UMG was “not required to offer them since his account was nonetheless so removed from recoupment.”
“Durst defined that he had been knowledgeable by UMG that he had not obtained any royalty statements as a result of UMG informed him through the years that it was not required to offer them since his account was nonetheless so removed from recoupment,” wrote Durst’s legal professionals as reported by Billboard. “Durst‘s representatives, suspicious that UMG was wrongfully claiming Plaintiffs’ accounts had been unrecouped, advised investigating additional.”
The lawsuit then states Durst‘s representatives realized Limp Bizkit’s accounts had greater than $1 million in unpaid royalties, which UMG claimed was a technical error.
The lawsuit reads, partly: “UMG’s failure to subject royalty statements particularly from 1997-2004 — the peak of the band’s fame and in periods by which they made record-breaking gross sales — with respect to its hottest albums means that UMG was deliberately concealing the true quantity of gross sales, and due to this fact royalties, due and owing to Limp Bizkit with the intention to unfairly preserve these income for itself.”
UMG has not supplied a touch upon the lawsuit but.
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