X just dropped a major antitrust lawsuit against a slew of music publishers, claiming collusion and inflated licensing demands.
X has filed an antitrust lawsuit against more than a dozen music publishers and their trade association, the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), alleging a coordinated effort to force the platform into purchasing industrywide licenses at exorbitant rates. The lawsuit was submitted in Texas federal court on Friday and outlines a purported multi-year scheme to leverage monopoly power against X.
According to the complaint, X asserts that it has been systematically denied the ability to secure U.S. musical-composition licenses on competitive terms from individual publishers. This has resulted in the platform being unable to host certain songs posted by users. The legal action names 18 publishers, including major players like Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony Music Publishing, and Warner Chappell Music, alongside the NMPA.
David Israelite, President and CEO of the NMPA, stated, “X/Twitter is the only major social media company that does not license the songs on its platform.” He accused X of copyright infringement and described its lawsuit as a distractive attempt to undermine the rights of publishers and songwriters to enforce their copyrights against illegal usage of their music.
This lawsuit follows a lengthy legal battle between X and the NMPA, which began in 2023 when the trade group accused X of mass copyright infringement. Earlier this year, the NMPA had sought a stay of proceedings in hopes of reaching a settlement. While a November update indicated progress towards a potential agreement, no resolution has been reached thus far.
X contends that publishers have rejected opportunities to negotiate licenses individually and claims that they have used the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) as a tool to remove unlicensed content from its platform. The lawsuit cites a 2021 email from the NMPA threatening to launch an extensive campaign to flood X with takedown notices, which could lead to significant repercussions for its most popular users.
X argues that the DMCA affords it safe harbor from liability for users’ infringing posts, as the platform has policies in place to remove infringing content and deplatform repeat offenders when notified by rights holders. However, the NMPA has previously contended that X is not consistently acting on their notices.
The latest lawsuit raises several claims under antitrust law and unfair competition statutes, seeking unspecified damages along with a court order that would compel music publishers to negotiate directly with X.
