X is taking on major music publishers in an antitrust lawsuit, claiming they’ve been forced into unfair licensing agreements.
X has filed an antitrust lawsuit against more than a dozen music publishers and their trade association, the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), alleging a coordinated effort to compel the platform into securing industrywide licenses at inflated rates. This lawsuit, initiated in Texas federal court, highlights what X describes as a years-long campaign to leverage monopoly power against them.
According to the complaint, X claims it has been systematically denied the opportunity to secure U.S. musical-composition licenses on competitive terms from individual music publishers. The NMPA, which includes major players like Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony Music Publishing, and Warner Chappell Music, is named alongside 18 publishers in the lawsuit. Without these licenses, X argues it cannot enable users to post certain songs on its platform.
The legal fracas between X and the music publishers dates back years, with the NMPA initially suing X in 2023 over alleged mass copyright infringement. David Israelite, NMPA President and CEO, stated that X is the only significant social media platform not licensing music for use, asserting that their lawsuit is merely a tactic to deflect attention from X’s infringement of copyright.
In a twist, this latest lawsuit follows recent developments in the ongoing case, where the NMPA had sought a stay of proceedings, signaling they were close to a settlement. Despite some progress reported earlier in November, the two sides could not come to an agreement. X claims that music publishers have refused to negotiate deals on an individual basis, which would allow for a resolution.
X contends that these publishers have manipulated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to remove unlicensed content from its platform. The lawsuit mentions a 2021 email from the NMPA that threatened to initiate a large-scale campaign of takedown notices, potentially affecting many popular users on X. This campaign, according to the NMPA, would label these users as repeat infringers, which could lead to their accounts being suspended.
In defense, X maintains that the DMCA affords them “safe harbor” protections regarding user-generated infringing posts, provided they promptly take down content once notified by copyright holders. The NMPA previously argued that X often fails to act on their takedown notices.
The lawsuit outlines multiple claims related to antitrust violations and unfair competition. X is seeking unspecified damages and a court order that requires music publishers to engage in individual negotiations with the platform to secure licenses.
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