Judge dismisses RBX’s Spotify bot-stream suit with prejudice
Rapper Eric Collins’ amended case could not proceed, the court ruled; Drake was named in the streaming allegations but was not a defendant.
Spotify logo. Spotify · Public domain (PD-textlogo) · Resized for display.
A federal judge has dismissed rapper RBX’s proposed class action against Spotify with prejudice, ending the case in its current form. Judge Josephine L. Staton issued the ruling on October 23; Complex, Rolling Stone and AllHipHop reported the decision after reviewing the court record.
The second complaint did not clear the court’s bar
RBX, whose legal name is Eric Dwayne Collins, alleged that artificial plays had inflated Drake’s roughly 37 billion Spotify streams during a period cited in his complaint, diverting royalty share from other rights holders. Those numbers were Collins’ allegations. Drake was not a defendant in the case.
The court had dismissed the first complaint in June and allowed Collins to amend it. On the revised filing, Staton rejected the negligence and California Unfair Competition Law claims, finding the amended allegations still did not establish the required legal basis. The court dismissed the claims with prejudice rather than allowing another rewrite.
That is a ruling about the claims Collins brought against Spotify; it is not a finding that Drake’s streams were fraudulent. Rolling Stone reported that Collins’ attorney said he planned to appeal.
