{"id":5452,"date":"2025-04-24T17:24:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T17:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wmg-lawsuit-filed-against-crumbl-over-cookie-social-media-posts\/"},"modified":"2025-04-24T17:24:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T17:24:09","slug":"wmg-lawsuit-filed-against-crumbl-over-cookie-social-media-posts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wmg-lawsuit-filed-against-crumbl-over-cookie-social-media-posts\/","title":{"rendered":"WMG Lawsuit Filed Against Crumbl Over Cookie Social Media Posts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tW<\/span>arner Music Group has filed a lawsuit against Crumbl, the Utah-based cookie company, for copyright infringement. The lawsuit, filed on April 22 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, accuses Crumbl of using WMG\u2019s copyrighted sound recordings and musical compositions in its social media marketing campaigns without proper licenses.<\/p>\n

\n\tCrumbl has built its brand primarily through social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, often featuring popular music tracks in its promotional content. WMG claims that Crumbl has misappropriated at least 159 sound recordings and musical compositions in its videos. These tracks, which include works by artists such as Lizzo, Mariah Carey, Ariana Grande and Beyonc\u00e9, are said to be key to Crumbl\u2019s marketing strategy. Many of these videos rely heavily on music, with little to no dialogue, highlighting the central role of the unlicensed tracks in Crumbl\u2019s advertising efforts.<\/p>\n

\n\tWMG\u2019s complaint provides several examples of this alleged misappropriation. For instance, Crumbl\u2019s TikTok video promoting its blueberry cheesecake features the unauthorized use of \u201cBlueberry Faygo\u201d by Lil Mosey, the label said. Another video promoting Crumbl\u2019s yellow sugar cookie, while also advertising the film Minions: The Rise of Gru<\/em>, uses Coldplay\u2019s \u201cYellow\u201d without permission. A video promoting a butter cake cookie features \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 BTS\u2019 \u201cButter.\u201d Additionally, there\u2019s a video featuring Crumbl employees dancing to K CAMP\u2019s \u201cLottery (Renegade),\u201d and Crumbl even referenced music used in some videos, such as a TikTok post featuring Lizzo\u2019s \u201cJuice,\u201d with the caption repeating the song\u2019s lyrics.<\/p>\n

\n\tOther songs that WMG contends were infringed upon by Crumbl include Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s \u201cSingle Ladies (Put a Ring on It),\u201d Bruno Mars\u2019 \u201cLocked Out of Heaven,\u201d Dua Lipa\u2019s \u201cLevitating,\u201d George Michael\u2019s \u201cCareless Whisper,\u201d Gwen Stefani\u2019s \u201cHoldback Girl,\u201d Gotye\u2019s \u201cSomebody That I Used to Know,\u201d Taylor Swift\u2019s \u201cAll Too Well,\u201d Miley Cyrus\u2019 \u201cParty in the U.S.A.,\u201d Missy Elliott\u2019s \u201cGet Ur Freak On,\u201d Mariah Carey\u2019s \u201cFantasy\u201d and dozens more.<\/p>\n

\n\tWMG asserts that Crumbl\u2019s actions constitute direct, contributory and vicarious copyright infringement. The plaintiffs argue that Crumbl, which has over a thousand stores nationwide and is reportedly exploring a sale, according to Reuters<\/em><\/a>, should have been aware of the need to secure licenses for the music used in its promotional materials. Despite this, Crumbl allegedly persisted in using WMG\u2019s music without authorization, even after similar cases, including separate lawsuits against Bang Energy by WMG, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, brought attention to the overarching issue in 2022.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawsuit seeks a jury trial and a permanent injunction to prevent Crumbl from any further infringement. The company is also pursuing statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each infringed work, potentially totaling nearly $24 million if the court awards the maximum penalty for all 159 cited works.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis legal action underscores the music industry\u2019s ongoing efforts to protect intellectual property rights in the digital age, particularly as brands increasingly leverage popular music in social media marketing. The outcome of this case could have broader implications for how companies approach the use of copyrighted music in online promotions.<\/p>\n

\n\tWMG is being represented by Sidley Austin LLP and Workman Nydegger.<\/p>\n

\n\tCrumbl has not responded to Billboard<\/em>\u2018s request for comment on WMG\u2019s lawsuit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warner Music Group has filed a lawsuit against Crumbl, the Utah-based cookie company, for copyright infringement. The lawsuit, filed on April 22 in the U.S. District Court for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[5637,5636,749,303,410,2376,571,5635],"class_list":["post-5452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-cookie","tag-crumbl","tag-filed","tag-lawsuit","tag-media","tag-posts","tag-social","tag-wmg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}