A lawsuit accusing streaming giant Spotify of “turning a blind eye” to billions of allegedly fraudulent streams of Drake’s music has been permanently dismissed. The proposed class-action lawsuit, first reported by Rolling Stone last November, was rejected Friday after a judge found that rapper RBX, the lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit, failed to establish that Spotify owed him a specific legal duty or that he suffered the type of harm necessary to support a negligence claim. In a 16-page ruling obtained by Rolling Stone, U.S.
District Judge Josephine L. Staton said that RBX, whose legal name is Eric Dwayne Collins, failed to allege sufficient facts to support his claims that Spotify unfairly enforced its rules, committed fraud, or harmed consumers or competitors. She said the allegations instead showed a “mutually beneficial economic” relationship, despite a power imbalance typical of dealings between corporations and individuals.
Collins, a cousin of Snoop Dogg, alleged in his complaint that a “substantial, non-trivial percentage” of Drake’s approximately 37 billion streams were “inauthentic and appeared to be the work of a sprawling network of bot accounts.” Collins claimed Spotify’s royalty system allows fake streams to siphon money away from legitimate artists. Under the platform’s “streamshare” model, subscription and advertising revenue forms a pool of money that’s later distributed to artists based on their share of total streams. Collins argued that artificially inflated streams allow some artists to claim a disproportionate slice of the pie, thereby reducing the amount available to artists whose streams are legitimate.
Drake was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. A representative for the “Nokia” rapper declined to comment Monday on the dismissal. Lawyers for Collins and Spotify did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Staton previously dismissed the lawsuit but gave Collins an opportunity to amend his complaint. This time, she dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning Collins cannot refile the same claims in federal court. The latest ruling comes three months after a federal judge in Virginia paused a separate lawsuit accusing Drake, whose legal name is Aubrey Graham, and streamer Adin Ross of using the online casino platform Stake.us to bankroll a “bot army” that allegedly inflated streams of Drake’s music.
The judge stayed the case on July 30, saying it would remain on ice pending arbitration between Stake and the plaintiffs. Trending Stories My Chemical Romance Face Legal Action From Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Over Stage Costumes Trump Delivers Surefire Closing Message for Midterms: Check Out Nicki Minaj’s ‘Beautiful Ass’ Ethan Klein Confirms He'll ‘Remove Ownership’ From ‘H3 Podcast’ After Wife Accuses Him of Cheating Elvis Presley Rightsholders Sue Anthropic for Training on 274 Songs Without Permission In that case, which names Drake as a defendant, the plaintiffs allege a conspiracy to “prey upon consumers,” expose them to “substantial risks of gambling addiction,” and jeopardize their financial well-being. The plaintiffs claim they were “influenced to participate” in Stake’s allegedly predatory gambling operation after viewing Drake’s paid promotions of the platform, including livestreamed gambling sessions and giveaways.
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