Bad Bunny is asking a federal court to order emPawa Africa to cover $465,612 in legal fees after successfully defeating a copyright lawsuit tied to his Un Verano Sin Ti track “Enséñame a Bailar.”
According to court filings submitted on March 23 and obtained by Rolling Stone, the request comes weeks after a judge threw out the lawsuit on March 9, following repeated missed deadlines and the plaintiffs' failure to continue prosecuting the case.
The original complaint, filed in May 2024 by Nigerian producer Dera (Ezeani Chidera Godfrey), alleged that “Enséñame a Bailar” used an uncleared sample from a 2019 song, “Empty My Pocket,” created for artist Joeboy.
However, the case unraveled after Godfrey missed a February discovery hearing and failed to submit required filings in early March.
Bad Bunny’s legal team argues the lawsuit should never have advanced in the first place. In the motion, his attorneys described the claims as “meritless from the beginning and should never have been brought,” adding that emPawa Africa “aggressively litigated” the case in hopes of securing “an undeserved, multimillion-dollar settlement.”
The filing also alleges that the label stalled during discovery by making “frivolous objections” and ultimately abandoned the case after its legal counsel withdrew, citing “irreparable differences.”
The defense maintains that the disputed sample had proper clearance through Lakizo Entertainment, which had previously distributed the track in question.
“When faced with an imminent court order that would require it to explain how it owned ‘Empty’ and Lakizo did not, emPawa chose instead to abandon its claims altogether,” the motion states.
Notably, Bad Bunny is not seeking reimbursement from Godfrey personally. A footnote in the filing clarifies that his team believes the producer “was not primarily responsible for the prosecution of the lawsuit, nor did he finance the lawsuit,” placing responsibility instead on the label’s legal strategy.
The dispute centered around material from Un Verano Sin Ti, the 2022 album that cemented Bad Bunny’s global dominance. The project debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, spent 13 weeks atop the chart, and became the first Spanish-language album to lead the year-end ranking.
It also crossed 10 billion streams on Spotify and earned a historic Grammy nomination for Album of the Year.
