Metal Anarchy

According to Rolling Stone, Limp Bizkit have suffered a setback in their lawsuit against Universal Music Group. The matter recently went to court with a federal judge denying the band’s request to terminate their contract.

Frontman Fred Durst previously said the label owed the band over $200 million in unpaid royalties. He also accused them of using a “systemic” and “fraudulent” policy that was “deliberately designed” to hide royalties from artists.

Durst also claimed Limp Bizkit “never received any royalties from UMG” despite their success and millions of record sales. This extends to their ongoing resurgence in popularity.

Durst’s representatives eventually contacted UMG and discovered that Limp Bizkit had $1 million in royalties, but the label “failed to alert” them. This raised more red flags about “UMG’s accounting and payment practices.” Upon further investigation, they also found out that “UMG failed to issue any royalty statements for a number of accounting periods.”

For their part, UMG claimed the band were paid $43 million in recoupable advances, which is why it took so long to see money coming into their accounts. The label have since released $1.03 million to the band and $2.3 million to Durst’s Flawless Records, but the group still believed more money was owed. Despite this, Judge Percy Anderson denied a request to have their contract voided:

“The Court therefore concludes that Plaintiffs have not plausibly alleged the type of “substantial” or “total failure” in the performance of the contracts that could support rescission of the parties’ agreements.”

Since the copyright infringement and declaratory relief claims were tied to the rescission claim, they have been struck down as well. 12 other claims, including breach of contract, fraudulent concealment, etc., were not mentioned in the decision. Limp Bizkit’s attorney, Frank Seddigh said the following about this latest development:

“The Court ruled on three of our claims against Universal and gave us the opportunity to amend our complaint further — in order to keep litigating in Federal Court. The facts speak for themselves. Universal will be held accountable for its actions and will not get away with its conduct at the expense of artists.”

Limp Bizkit will have until February 3 to file an amended suit. However, if the updated complaint doesn’t have a copyright infringement claim, the court will “decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction” and it will be dismissed.

UMG have yet to comment on the decision. However, they previously claimed the lawsuit was “based on a fallacy.”