Spotify Wins Dismissal of Bot-Farming Lawsuit

A federal class-action lawsuit led by rapper RBX, which accused Spotify of ignoring bot-farming on its platform, has been dismissed by California federal judge Josephine Stanton. In her June 22 ruling, Judge Stanton found that RBX failed to plausibly allege that the harm he suffered outweighed Spotify's justification for its current policies regarding artificial streaming. The judge took issue with the suit's core claims that Spotify was negligent in protecting artists and violated California's Unfair Competition Law, noting that RBX's lawyers hadn't sufficiently proven the company had an obligation to address streaming fraud. The decision also highlighted that the complaint focused disproportionately on one artist, Drake, whose streams were alleged to be artificially inflated. Drake was not named as a defendant but was cited as an example of an artist who has benefited from the alleged fraud. RBX's legal team plans to file an amended complaint within 20 days. Drake himself filed a separate lawsuit against Spotify and Universal Music Group in 2024, alleging they engaged in illegal stream-boosting of Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us."

(Source：Pitchfork)