A lawsuit accusing Spotify of boosting streams by Drake and other artists has been dismissed by a federal judge.
According to legal documents obtained by Complex, the class action lawsuit from Genevieve Capolongo was dismissed with prejudice — meaning that the case can't be refiled over similar allegations.
There was no discovery in the case, and, in the ruling, the judge pointed to Capolongo signing an enforceable arbitration agreement with Spotify, which waived the right to sue and seek resolution via private arbitration instead.
Capolongo’s lawsuit, filed last November, alleged that Spotify’s 'Discovery Mode' is a form of illegal payola. She claimed that Spotify tricked users by promoting playlists that are actually bought by major labels. In addition to Drake, she also mentioned Justin Bieber in the lawsuit.
The wildest thing about this lawsuit is that it isn’t even the only one that was filed last November that mentioned Drake. That month, Eric Dwayne Collins, better known as RBX to the public, brought another lawsuit against Spotify on his behalf and "a similarly situated class of music recording artists, songwriters, performers, and other music rights holders" who earn income on Spotify.
In the filing, Drake’s music is cited as an example of alleged streaming fraud on Spotify, arguing that the practices can lead to "massive financial harm" to artists and other rights-holders if proven.
In response to the lawsuit, a Spotify spokesperson told Complex: "We cannot comment on pending litigation. However, Spotify in no way benefits from the industry-wide challenge of artificial streaming. We heavily invest in always-improving, best-in-class systems to combat it and safeguard artist payouts with strong protections like removing fake streams, withholding royalties, and charging penalties."
"Our systems are working: In a case from last year, one bad actor was indicted for stealing $10,000,000 from streaming services, only $60,000 of which came from Spotify, proving how effective we are at limiting the impact of artificial streaming on our platform," the spokesperson added.
In other Drake news, the rapper is gearing up to release his long-awaited ICEMAN album on May 15.
