{"id":7715,"date":"2025-09-08T04:14:25","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T04:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/judge-refuses-to-dismiss-antitrust-case\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T04:14:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T04:14:25","slug":"judge-refuses-to-dismiss-antitrust-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/judge-refuses-to-dismiss-antitrust-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Refuses to Dismiss Antitrust Case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tA<\/span> federal judge says Musixmatch must continue to face an antitrust lawsuit over allegations that the company is trying to monopolize the market for providing lyrics to streamers like Spotify.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a ruling issued Wednesday, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley refused to dismiss a case filed earlier this year by rival LyricFind, which claims that Musixmatch inked an \u201cunprecedented\u201d exclusive deal with Warner Music Group, shutting out competing companies from that label\u2019s huge catalog.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf later proven with evidence \u2014 a big \u201cif\u201d in any lawsuit\u201d \u2014 the judge said that LyricFind\u2019s allegations would amount to a violation of federal antitrust laws.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u201cLyricFind plausibly alleges Musixmatch entered an exclusive agreement causing injury of the type antitrust laws are intended to prevent and substantially foreclosing competition,\u201d Judge Corley wrote.<\/p>\n

\n\tMusixmatch had argued that it did nothing wrong by signing the deal with Warner Chappell Music (which is not named as defendant in the lawsuit nor accused of wrongdoing). But the judge cited an earlier ruling against a company that had used exclusive contracts to shut out competition.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat is essentially what LyricFind alleges here: that Musixmatch entered an exclusive deal with WCM \u2014 never asking LyricFind for a competing bid \u2014 which precludes LyricFind from offering services for WCM-controlled compositions, which account for approximately 30% of streams and around 60% of the top 100 songs,\u201d Judge Corley wrote.<\/p>\n

\n\tWednesday\u2019s ruling is not a final decision, but is a clear win for LyricFind. The ruling avoids an early-stage dismissal and allows the lawsuit to proceed into discovery, where both sides exchange evidence, and toward an eventual trial. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement to Billboard<\/em>, Musixmatch called the order a \u201cpreliminary ruling in the legal process\u201d and stressed that evidence had not yet been considered: \u201cOnce the relevant facts are presented and examined, we remain confident we will prevail.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe decision came in a courtroom showdown between two leading lyrics service providers \u2013 companies paid by Spotify, Apple, YouTube and other streaming services to secure licenses, transcribe songs, and administer royalty payments for lyrics displayed on the platforms.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Kacey<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAt the center of the case, filed in March, is a licensing agreement that MusixMatch and its private equity owner TPG Global recently struck with Warner Chappell, which LyricFind says has \u201celiminated competition and raised prices.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe major music companies have historically licensed their vast catalogs of lyrics on a non-exclusive<\/em> basis, the lawsuit claims, allowing firms to compete for the right to provide them to streamers. But LyricFind says the new deal with Warner was instead an exclusive<\/em> deal that shuts out competitors from a third of the market \u2014 an arrangement that it called \u201cunprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMusixmatch\u2019s goal was simple: make sure that Spotify, and other [streamers], have no choice but to obtain [lyrics] from Musixmatch despite its higher fees \u2014 a plainly anticompetitive result,\u201d the company\u2019s attorneys wrote at the time. (Neither Warner Music nor Spotify were named as a defendant in the case or accused of any wrongdoing.)<\/p>\n

\n\tMusixmatch hit back in June, asking the judge to dismiss the case. The company said it had done nothing wrong, and that LyricFind had turned to the courts simply because it was \u201cangered\u201d that a particular customer had cut ties in favor of a competitor.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLyricFind, unable to convince WCM to do business with it instead, has filed this meritless antitrust suit \u2026 hoping it can obtain through litigation what it was unable to win in the marketplace,\u201d the company\u2019s lawyers write. \u201cStripped of buzzwords and hyperbole, the core of LyricFind\u2019s complaint is simply that WCM chose Musixmatch instead of LyricFind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in Wednesday\u2019s ruling, Judge Corley said LyricFind had a stronger case than Musixmatch had claimed. At one point, she cited the alleged leverage that such a deal would give a company in negotiations with a streamer like Spotify.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLyricFind plausibly alleges that even if it offered superior services and prices, DSPs would still contract with Musixmatch because they need access to WCM songs and are unwilling to bear the cost and inconvenience of contracting with Musixmatch for WCM songs and with LyricFind for the rest,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe ruling did dismiss several counts from LyricFind\u2019s lawsuit, including those leveling conspiracy allegations. But the dismissal was not permanent; the judge gave the company a chance to update its lawsuit and refile those claims in the future.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement to Billboard<\/em> on Thursday, LyricFind\u2019s lawyer Kellie Lerner said she and her client were \u201cpleased\u201d with a ruling that \u201coffers a strong rebuke\u201d to Musixmatch\u2019s claims that the lawsuit was meritless: \u201cWe look forward to continuing to amass evidence of Musixmatch and TPG\u2019s anticompetitive scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal judge says Musixmatch must continue to face an antitrust lawsuit over allegations that the company is trying to monopolize the market for providing lyrics to streamers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[358,294,299,423,5311],"class_list":["post-7715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-antitrust","tag-case","tag-dismiss","tag-judge","tag-refuses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7715","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=7715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}