Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst filed a lawsuit towards 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 brief assertion that makes their emotions fairly clear: “Plaintiffs’ total narrative that UMG tried to hide royalties is a fiction.”
In response to a report by Rolling Stone, UMG claims they paid Limp Bizkit $1 million in again royalties after their supervisor arrange a vendor profile and likewise gave Durst‘s file 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 at least 15 state (and one federal) putative claims for aid.”
UMG is searching for 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 legislation corporations who first, as a matter in fact, strive something to dismiss the go well with when they’re in hassle with the details,” 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 towards 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 means 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 acquired 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 advised Durst‘s representatives that they had spent $43 million on Limp Bizkit‘s music, and that Durst by no means acquired 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 acquired any royalty statements as a result of UMG advised him over time that it was not required to offer them since his account was nonetheless so removed from recoupment,” wrote Durst’s attorneys as reported by Billboard. “Durst‘s representatives, suspicious that UMG was wrongfully claiming Plaintiffs’ accounts had been unrecouped, prompt investigating additional.”
The lawsuit then states Durst‘s representatives discovered 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 challenge royalty statements specifically from 1997-2004 — the peak of the band’s fame and in periods wherein 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 subsequently royalties, due and owing to Limp Bizkit in an effort to unfairly maintain these earnings for itself.”
UMG has not provided a touch upon the lawsuit but.
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