A new class action lawsuit has been filed against Spotify on account of its music recommendation service. The lawsuit was filed by a premium subscriber, Genevieve Capolongo.
The case alleges that Spotify deceives paying users by secretly selling playlist visibility. The complaint claims that features like “Discover Weekly” and the AI-powered “DJ” prioritize tracks from labels that agree to the payment of reduced royalties through the undisclosed “Discovery Mode” programme, rather than providing purely personalized recommendations.
The lawsuit claims Spotify “exploits that trust by marketing itself as a platform that offers organic music recommendations … only to secretly sell those recommendations to the highest bidder.”
The suit invokes New York State statutes on false advertising and seeks restitution and punitive damages exceeding $5 million. Spotify has not issued a public response with respect to the lawsuit.
This lawsuit follows a separate class-action lawsuit filed on November 2, which alleges that Spotify ignored billions of bot-generated streams, inflated mainstream artistes’ numbers, and diluted royalty pools for independent acts. RBX’s attorney, Mark Pifko, speaking on the lawsuit, said, “If someone cheats the system, fraudulently inflating their streams, it takes from everyone else.”
Leave a comment