Limp Bizkit is breaking the law and has now sued Universal Music.
The band is suing Universal Music Group for damages related to unpaid royalties, claiming the company intentionally concealed royalties from its artists.
Yahoo reports that Fred Durst and his band members are seeking $20 million in damages, however, they claim that the total amount Universal owes them could “easily surpass” $200 million.
While Limp Bizkit was popular in the late 90s and early 00s, the band claims that they have had a resurgence in popularity leading to “millions of streaming users every month”, “selling out arenas, market” and “headlining major festivals” despite not yet producing “any new music.”
Despite their newfound fame, the band alleged that Universal failed to consider itself a “professional artist” company in terms of compensating royalties paid to them over the years. Limp Bizkit also alleged that the organization financially paid for the band to work on new music, but never paid royalties back to the group after UMG had recouped its investment.
“Plaintiffs have discovered that, contrary to these statements, UMG not only never intended to pay Plaintiffs, but also designed and implemented the software and royalty system designed intentionally to conceal the artist’s royalties and keep those profits for himself,” court documents said. read, follow Yahoo.
“Indeed, Plaintiffs contend that the amount will easily exceed $200 million,” the lawsuit continues.
Elsewhere in the documents, UMG is said to have told Durst’s representatives that approximately $43 million still needed to be paid for Durst to receive any royalties. Because of this, Durst’s representative was said to have informed that there would not be any royalties as UMG “is not obligated to provide them as his account has not been cleared to date.” again.”
However, Durst’s team said they discovered that the band’s original record label, Flip Records, had earned millions from profit sharing with Universal Music Group.
In total, UMG is accused of rescission, breach of contract recording agreement, fraudulent concealment, breach of fiduciary duty, intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation and copyright infringement.
Durst has continued to request a jury trial to resolve this issue.
Tags Fred Durst, Limp Bizkit