Spotify has won the first round of a lawsuit claiming the platform allowed fake streams to eat into royalties meant for working artists.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton dismissed rapper RBX’s proposed class action against the company, ruling that his accusations were too thin to move forward. RBX, born Eric Collins, alleged Spotify turned a “blind eye” to artificial streaming and allowed bots to inflate numbers for major artists, including Drake.
The Canadian rapper was not sued and was not formally accused of wrongdoing. His name appeared repeatedly in the complaint, which alleged that “billions of fraudulent streams” had been generated for songs by “the most streamed artist of all time.”
The judge found that RBX had not shown Spotify had a legal duty to protect him from fake streams or that the alleged harm outweighed Spotify’s reasons for its current policies.
“Plaintiff has failed to plausibly allege that the harm he has suffered outweighs any justification Spotify may have for maintaining its current policies regarding artificial streaming,” she wrote. Spotify has previously denied benefiting from fake plays, saying it “in no way benefits from the industry-wide challenge of artificial streaming” and has “best-in-class systems to combat it.”
The judge also questioned the complaint’s narrow focus, saying the financial impact on artists like RBX was “unclear,” but he can file again in 2021 with any amendments.
