Attorneys for Universal Music Group have responded to Limp Bizkit‘s $200 million lawsuit against the music publisher, claiming the allegations are based on “fiction.”
As previously reported, Fred Durst and Limp Bizkit filed a lawsuit against Universal Music for $200 million, claiming the band “never received any royalties” until recently.
In the lawsuit, filed on October 8th, Durst’s lawyers allege that Limp Bizkit and “possibly hundreds of other artists” have “unfairly had their royalties wrongfully withheld for years” due to a “fraudulent” system created by Universal Music. Considering Limp Bizkit’s massive popularity during those years, and the considerable amount of subsequent royalties, the lawsuit raised eyebrows across the industry.
Now, UMG’s attorneys have hit back in a motion last Friday (November 22nd), stating that Durst’s claims are “based on a fallacy” and that documents included in his own lawsuit “eviscerate” his case.
“Plaintiffs’ entire narrative that UMG tried to conceal royalties is a fiction,” wrote Rollin A. Ransom, an attorney representing UMG [via Rolling Stone]. “Plaintiffs’ complaint fails as a matter of law and should be dismissed with prejudice.”
According to Billboard, the filing cites emails in which a UMG exec appears to have reached out to get royalties moving, but was rebuffed by the band’s own management.
The filing continued: “Over a year before plaintiffs’ ‘discovery’ of allegedly ‘concealed’ royalties, UMG affirmatively and unilaterally reached out to Limp Bizkit’s representative so that it could begin making royalty payments to the band, and was instead informed by him that all members of Limp Bizkit but one (including plaintiff Durst) had assigned their royalty shares to others, and were therefore not entitled to any royalty payments from UMG.”
Durst’s lawyer Mark Fabiani responded in a statement to Billboard:
“When someone is caught red handed, their first response is often to hire very expensive outside law firms who first, as a matter of course, try anything to dismiss the suit when they are in trouble with the facts. In this case, we believe UMG is using a typical, formulaic, well-trodden strategy of reaching for any escape route by desperately grasping at technicalities.”
Despite the ongoing legal drama, Limp Bizkit are back in the studio working on the follow-up to their 2021 album Still Sucks. In late October, Durst offered an update from on Instagram, sharing a story of John Otto tracking drums for the new material. The nu-metal vets are also set to support Metallica’s 2025 North American tour (get tickets here).