Overview
- X filed an antitrust complaint in a Texas federal court naming the National Music Publishers’ Association and 18 publishers, including Universal, Sony and Warner Chappell.
- X alleges a coordinated refusal to offer individual, competitively priced licenses and claims publishers used DMCA takedowns to pressure the platform into an industrywide deal.
- The complaint says publishers representing more than 90% of U.S. compositions sent weekly notices targeting thousands of posts, prompting removals and over 50,000 user suspensions.
- X seeks damages and a court order requiring publishers to negotiate individual licenses, asserting lost advertising revenue from content removals and account actions.
- Publishers dispute the allegations as meritless and point to ongoing infringement claims against X, which previously saw most of a 2023 publisher lawsuit dismissed in 2024 after talks toward a settlement stalled.