Skip to content

Like a Chump? Limp Bizkit Lawsuit Against UMG Has Some Allegations Thrown Out

Limp Bizkit's $200 million lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG) faced a significant hiccup this past Friday, January 17th, when a federal judge dismissed a critical aspect of the case. The lawsuit, spearheaded by frontman Fred Durst, accused UMG of fraudulent accounting practices in calculating royalty payments for Limp Bizkit’s catalog and artists under Durst’s Flawless Records label.

The band has alleged from their suit originally filed in October of 2024 that they received only a small fraction of their promised royalties from the sales and streams of 45 million albums distributed by UMG. The label attributed this to $43 million in unrecouped advances. While Limp Bizkit and Flawless Records-associated acts successfully recovered over $3 million in back payments, Durst pursued $200 million in damages and sought to void the band’s record contracts. This would have returned the master recording rights to the band, which are currently still held by UMG.

UMG denied the allegations in November 2024, dismissing them as "based on a fallacy." Judge Percy Anderson ruled in UMG’s favor, rejecting the attempt to nullify the contracts. In his decision, Anderson stated: "The Court therefore concludes that Plaintiffs have not plausibly alleged the type of 'substantial' or 'total failure' in the performance of the contracts that could support rescission of the parties' agreements."

Despite this setback, the lawsuit remains active and pursued by Limp Bizkit's legal team. Limp Bizkit’s legal battle primarily focuses on copyright infringement and seeks declaratory relief. Twelve other claims, including breach of contract and fraudulent concealment, are yet to be resolved. According to Rolling Stone, the band has until February 3 to amend their copyright infringement claims. Failing this, the case will be dismissed and would need to be refiled in a different court.

Frank Seddigh, representing Limp Bizkit in the case, commented on the ruling: "The Court ruled on three of our claims against Universal and gave us the opportunity to amend our complaint further — in order to keep litigating in Federal Court. The facts speak for themselves. Universal will be held accountable for its actions and will not get away with its conduct at the expense of artists."

Limp Bizkit is the latest larger scale music act to sue a record label over contract disputes, alleged withheld royalties, and the like, but it's been an ongoing story for decades of the balance between artists and their record contractors. The Beatles notably had a decade long battle with EMI group over underpayment of royalties, which was settled in 1989. The remaining members alive in 2005 and their deceased bandmates' estates sued again in 2005 for over $53 million in unpaid royalties, which was again settled in 2007. Brad Paisley sued Sony for $10 million in 2014, Dr. Dre sued and won against Death Row Records in 2015, and Kanye West sued EMI and Universal in 2019 to void his contracts and control his own publishing rights. Tom Petty, Neil Young, John Fogerty, and many other classic artists and songwriters over the years have sued their labels, with varying successes and failures. Notable other bands that have done the same to varying degrees include Metallica and Pearl Jam along with some notorious record labels such as Victory Records seeming to be either sued or threatened with legal action by seemingly a vast majority of their signees, including Thursday, Hawthorne Heights, A Day To Remember, Atreyu, and Taking Back Sunday.

As this story unfolds further, time will tell if Limp Bizkit's lawsuit will put them in the leagues of artists who were able to extract some of the fruits of their labor that were exploited, or if they'll go the way of many others who were unable to get what they viewed as economic justice.

Comments

Latest