Universal Music Group Calls FRED DURST’s Royalties-Related Lawsuit Against Them A “Fallacy”

Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst filed a lawsuit towards Common Music Group (UMG) in a federal court docket in California on Tuesday, October 8 for $200 million for allegedly unpaid royalties. UMG has since responded to the lawsuit with a really brief assertion that makes their emotions fairly clear: “Plaintiffs’ whole narrative that UMG tried to hide royalties is a fiction.”

In keeping with a report by Rolling Stone, UMG claims they paid Limp Bizkit $1 million in again royalties after their supervisor arrange a vendor profile and likewise gave Durst‘s file label Flawless Data $2.3 million

“Regardless of these funds, on September 30, 2024, Plaintiffs served UMG with a proper Discover of Rescission of the Flip Settlement, the Recording Settlement, and the Flawless Settlement,” wrote UMG. “When UMG rejected the Rescission Discover, Plaintiffs filed the current motion, asserting at least 15 state (and one federal) putative claims for reduction.”

UMG is looking for a dismissal of the lawsuit, which a consultant for Limp Bizkit is predictably not thrilled about.

“When somebody is caught red-handed, their first response is usually to rent very costly exterior legislation companies who first, as a matter after all, attempt something to dismiss the go well with when they’re in hassle with the details,” mentioned the consultant. “On this case, we imagine UMG is utilizing a typical, formulaic, well-trodden technique of reaching for any escape route by desperately greedy at technicalities.”

As a recap, Durst filed the lawsuit towards UMG for allegedly unpaid royalties and asking for a void of Limp Bizkit‘s contract. The lawsuit additionally seeks compensation for artists that labored with UMG via Durst‘s personal Flawless Data, in addition to asks for the copyrights of all works by Flawless Data artists to be launched from UMG to Durst.

The lawsuit claims that Durst by no means obtained royalties from UMG, solely advances previous to recording the albums. Durst additional claims that UMG promised royalties as soon as these advances have been recouped, which by no means occurred. Bloomberg additional notes that UMG allegedly instructed Durst‘s representatives they’d spent $43 million on Limp Bizkit‘s music, and that Durst by no means obtained royalty statements as a result of UMG was “not required to supply them since his account was nonetheless so removed from recoupment.”

“Durst defined that he had been knowledgeable by UMG that he had not obtained any royalty statements as a result of UMG instructed him through the years that it was not required to supply them since his account was nonetheless so removed from recoupment,” wrote Durst’s attorneys as reported by Billboard. “Durst‘s representatives, suspicious that UMG was wrongfully claiming Plaintiffs’ accounts have been unrecouped, steered investigating additional.”

The lawsuit then states Durst‘s representatives discovered Limp Bizkit’s accounts had greater than $1 million in unpaid royalties, which UMG claimed was a technical error.

The lawsuit reads, partly: “UMG’s failure to problem royalty statements particularly from 1997-2004 — the peak of the band’s fame and during times wherein they made record-breaking gross sales — with respect to its hottest albums means that UMG was deliberately concealing the true quantity of gross sales, and subsequently royalties, due and owing to Limp Bizkit so as to unfairly maintain these income for itself.”

UMG has not supplied a touch upon the lawsuit but.