{"id":5971,"date":"2025-05-22T06:33:47","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T06:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/universal-music-beastie-boys-settle-chilis-lawsuits-over-social-ads\/"},"modified":"2025-05-22T06:33:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T06:33:47","slug":"universal-music-beastie-boys-settle-chilis-lawsuits-over-social-ads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/universal-music-beastie-boys-settle-chilis-lawsuits-over-social-ads\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal Music, Beastie Boys Settle Chili’s Lawsuits Over Social Ads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tU<\/span>niversal Music Group (UMG) and the Beastie Boys have both reached confidential settlements to end lawsuits in which they accused restaurant chain Chili\u2019s of using their music in social media advertisements without permission. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTwo court filings on Wednesday (May 21) informed federal judges that Chili\u2019s owner Brinker International agreed to settlements with both UMG and the Beastie Boys during a mediation session two weeks earlier. The terms of the settlements have not been revealed, as is typical in these types of lawsuits.<\/p>\n

\n\tUMG and the Beastie Boys both sued Brinker in 2024, alleging Chili\u2019s featured their copyrighted music in advertisements on TikTok, Instagram and other social media platforms without buying so-called \u201csynch\u201d licenses.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile social media platforms provide huge libraries of licensed music for users to add to their videos, a brand must purchase a special synch license if it wants to include a song in any commercial or promotional content.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Beastie Boys, who are famously averse to their music appearing in advertisements, claimed in a July lawsuit that Brinker used their iconic 1994 song \u201cSabotage\u201d in a promotional video without permission.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo add insult to injury, the Beastie Boys said this Chili advertisement also showed three men in \u201c70s-style\u201d wigs, fake mustaches and sunglasses carrying out a \u201crobbery\u201d of food ingredients from a Chili\u2019s. The rap trio claimed these visuals clearly evoked the \u201cSabotage\u201d music video, which featured Adam \u201cAd-Rock\u201d Horovitz, Michael \u201cMike D\u201d Diamond and the late Adam \u201cMCA\u201d Yauch in similar attire.<\/p>\n

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\n\tUMG followed up with its own lawsuit this past October, alleging that dozens of Chili\u2019s social media advertisements used unlicensed music from the label. UMG said the restaurant company\u2019s wrongdoing extended to more than 60 songs by artists including Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga, Snoop Dogg, Lana Del Rey, ABBA, Luke Bryan, Travis Scott, Bruno Mars, Lil Nas X, Earth Wind & Fire and The Weeknd.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Wednesday\u2019s court filings, both UMG and the Beastie Boys have reached agreements \u201cin principle\u201d to end their claims against Brinker. The settlement deals are currently being finalized, and both lawsuits are expected to be closed by early July.<\/p>\n

\n\tA UMG rep declined to comment on the settlement news. Spokespeople for the Beastie Boys and Brinker did not immediately return requests for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tNumerous brands have faced lawsuits in recent years from music companies and artists over the use of copyrighted songs in social media ads. All three major labels sued drink maker Bang Energy for this in 2021, leading to closely-watched judgments in favor of UMG and Sony.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn July, Kobalt and other music publishers brought lawsuits against more than a dozen NBA teams over the use of songs in social media videos, leading to a bevy of settlements earlier this year. And just last month, a Detroit-area Ford dealership settled claims that it unlawfully featured Eminem\u2019s \u201cLose Yourself in TikTok videos.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Universal Music Group (UMG) and the Beastie Boys have both reached confidential settlements to end lawsuits in which they accused restaurant chain Chili\u2019s of using their music in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2035,2467,2468,2469,317,593,448,571,2501],"class_list":["post-5971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-ads","tag-beastie","tag-boys","tag-chilis","tag-lawsuits","tag-music","tag-settle","tag-social","tag-universal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5971","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=5971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}