FLORIDA (CelebrityAccess) – Warner Music Group (WMG) has joined Sony Music Entertainment (SME) and Universal Music Group )UMG) in suing Bang Energy Drink for copyright infringement over the allegedly unauthorized use of music in promo videos posted to social media platforms including TikTok.
WMG recently submitted the complaint to a Florida federal court, naming as defendants Weston-headquartered Vital Pharmaceuticals (which operates as Bang Energy) and Bang owner, CEO, and chief scientific officer Jack Owoc.
UMG filed first to take Bang Energy to court for alleged copyright infringement in TikTok videos in April of 2021. An August 2021 complaint from SME followed that action.
And as reiterated in WMG’s 20-page filing, UMG and SME have been awarded partial summary judgment victories in their legal battles with Bang; social media platforms’ various blanket licenses don’t extend to promotional spots uploaded by brands or adjacent marketing videos for which influencers are compensated.
WMG’s similar suit states that execs learned of Bang’s alleged “blatant, willful, and repeated copyright infringement” not through the millions upon millions of views and reposts that the involved TikTok videos racked up but through Universal Music’s action mentioned above.
“In April 2021, WMG first discovered the extensive infringement of the Copyrighted Musical Works in Defendants’ social media videos when record companies and music publishers affiliated with Universal Music Group (‘UMG’), another major music company, sued Defendants in this Court,” the appropriate section of the lawsuit reads.
In July 2021, the suit states WMG sent Bang a cease-and-desist notice. Predictably, the recipient’s “infringement nonetheless persisted, even in the face of two lawsuits and WMG’s cease-and-desist letter,” according to the plaintiffs, who likewise claimed that Bang had left several of the identified videos “up for over a year” and subsequently posted new clips featuring the songs in question.
The Big Three label said that Bang had infringed upon a total of “nearly two hundred” recordings and compositions via social media videos. And with the filing having described in close detail how the multibillion-dollar energy-drink company’s business model relies on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, WMG is suing for vicarious and contributory infringement.
