Universal Music Group has responded to Limp Bizkit‘s lawsuit alleging that the company owes Fred Durst and company over $200 million in royalties.
As previously reported, Limp Bizkit’s lawyers claimed in the original complaint that Durst “had not received any money [from UMG] for any Limp Bizkit exploitations—ever.” Upon investigating, reps for Durst say that they discovered that Limp Bizkit was due payments that they were never notified about.
The suit also claims to have discovered a “critical, prejudicial, and essentially fraudulent design in UMG’s system whereby artists are owed millions of dollars in royalties and yet know nothing about it.”
In a motion filed Friday, lawyers for UMG say that Limp Bizkit’s claims are “based on a fallacy.”
“Plaintiffs’ entire narrative that UMG tried to conceal royalties is a fiction,” the motion reads.
As UMG lawyers tell it, the confusion over royalties was due to a misunderstanding with a business manager, who’d originally told UMG that all but one of the Limp Bizkit members, including Durst, had “sold/assigned their share [of the royalties] to various companies,” only to realize that he misspoke and contacted UMG again a little over a year later.
“With this new information in hand, UMG then began the process of obtaining the required forms and bank information to begin paying out royalties to the band,” the motion reads. Upon delivering payments to Limp Bizkit and Durst’s Flawless Records imprint, UMG declared that “all ‘outstanding royalties and profits’ had been paid.”
UMG says that, despite this, Limp Bizkit filed their complaint alleging additional royalties owed. The motion calls for the case to be dismissed with prejudice, meaning the suit could not be refiled.
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