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- Buzzy exercise startup Peloton is facing a $300 million claim that it used songs by artists including Taylor Swift, The Beatles, and many other prominent musicians without proper licenses.
- The National Music Publishers' Association originally filed a suit in March alleging exercise bike startup Peloton used over 1,000 songs without a license.
- Now the NMPA has updated the suit, claiming it's found a further 1,200 songs Peloton used without license. It has doubled the damages it's seeking from $150 million to $300 million.
- Peloton is gearing up for its IPO, and is pursuing a countersuit accusing the NMPA of anticompetitive conduct.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Buzzy exercise bike startup Peloton has been accused of stealing many more songs than previously alleged in a lawsuit by a music publishers group.
The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) originally filed a suit against Peloton in March, claiming Peloton had used over 1,000 songs in its virtual exercise classes without paying any license. Some of the songs mentioned in the lawsuit subsequently vanished, to the dismay of users.
Now the NMPA has filed an amended suit after claiming it found a further 1,200 infringing songs - upping the damages sought to $300 million, double the original figure of $150 million. Songs by Taylor Swift and Adele were among those added to the list, Forbes reported.
The NMPA told the Verge these songs were uncovered through legal discovery, and in a statement focused on classics by Ray Charles and The Beatles: "Newly discovered works include some of the most famous and popular songs ever recorded, such as "Georgia On My Mind," "I Can See For Miles" and "I Saw Her Standing There," a spokesman said.
The amended lawsuit comes just ahead of Peloton's planned IPO. After the initial suit was filed Peloton launched a countersuit accusing the NMPA of anticompetitive behavior, instigating a "coordinated effort" among its members to "fix prices and to engage in a concerted refusal to deal with Peloton."
Peloton reiterated this position following this amended suit in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter: "NMPA has again revealed its anti-competitive objective in this matter. In March, NMPA requested an expedited trial schedule, to which Peloton readily agreed. On the eve of court-ordered mediation, NMPA sought to alter the optics around its lawsuit by filing exaggerated new claims prior to the mediation while also transparently timing its filing to capitalize on Peloton's inability to publicly respond in detail during our quiet period."
Peloton was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Business Insider. Business Insider was not immediately able to contact the NMPA.
You can read the NMPA's updated complaint here:
The National Music Publishe... by Anonymous x0vjYq on Scribd