PRS For Music Prevails in Lawsuit Related to Royalty Distributions

The UK government has rejected a class action lawsuit against PRS For Music (PRS), a major UK-based performance rights organization (PRO). Blur drummer Dave Rowntree predicated the legal action in April of last year, claiming the PRO improperly distributes “black box income,” or royalties PRS collected but has been unable to allocate to the specific owner.

The lawsuit:

• The suit stated the majority of the black box income belonged to writers, but the distribution was unfairly skewed to publishers.

• The Competition Appeal Tribunal, the UK governing body overseeing the lawsuit, stated that “songwriters… are not ‘owed’ black box royalties,” and that the plaintiffs did provide enough evidence to support their claims.

• PRS represents 175,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers.

What they said:

• PRS: “We welcome the Tribunal’s comprehensive decision to reject this claim, noting that no evidence was provided to support the suggestion that PRS’s distribution policies are unfair, nor was a plausible alternative put forward. It has always been our position that these allegations were based on a fundamental misrepresentation of our policies and operations, which has been fully vindicated in this judgment.”