Warner Music Group (WMG) claims in a new lawsuit that Ray-Ban’s parent company has used hundreds of its works in social media advertisements without paying for the rights.
The legal complaint, filed on Friday (Oct. 9) and obtained by Billboard, accuses Italian eyewear conglomerate EssilorLuxottica of infringing 427 copyrights owned by WMG. The music company is seeking the maximum statutory damages of $150,000 per work, adding up to a total of $64 million.
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WMG alleges that EssilorLuxottica, which owns brands like Ray-Ban, Oakley and Sunglasses Hut, regularly uses unlicensed music in ads blasted to more than 36 million followers across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. These videos have featured recordings put out by WMG’s labels, including Charli xcx’s “Apple” and Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now”, as well as compositions published by Warner Chappell, like Drake’s “0 to 100/The Catch Up”, Rihanna’s “Where Have You Been”, Taylor Swift’s “You Belong with Me” and Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode”.
According to the lawsuit, EssilorLuxottica’s ads have been “wildly successful” in selling eyewear and earning the company billions of dollars in revenue. But WMG says it’s been cut out of the windfall.
“Defendants used the Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works to build their brand profiles and drive sales without paying any compensation to Plaintiffs,” reads the lawsuit. “Defendants not only failed to pay for the use of Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works, but by including these works in the Luxottica videos without Plaintiffs’ consent, Defendants deprived Plaintiffs and their artists and songwriters of the ability to control how and where their art is used.”
EssilorLuxottica did not immediately return a request for comment on the lawsuit on Monday (Oct. 12).
Over the last several years, the major music rightsholders have launched a large-scale legal crackdown on the use of unlicensed tracks by corporate social media accounts. While platforms like Instagram and TikTok have blanket licenses in place that allow individual users to freely soundtrack their videos from vast libraries of pre-cleared songs, music companies require commercial accounts to purchase synch licenses to use their material, just like for a conventional TV ad placement.
Labels and publishers have sued brands like Chili’s, Marriott, Crumbl and Designer Shoe Warehouse over this issue in the past few years. The vast majority of such cases end in settlements.
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