Snapchat sued by Swiss rights collection society SUISA for refusing to pay its composers, songwriters and publishers

Snap Inc., the owner of social media platform Snapchat, is being sued by Switzerland-based SUISA Digital Licensing for alleged copyright infringement.

SUISA Digital is a subsidiary of the music rights collection society SUISA that collects digital publishing royalties outside the U.S. for its 80,000 songwriters, composers, publishers and about 10 million works. It has created license agreements for worldwide uses with more than 80 digital music providers.

The society alleges that Snap “refuses to pay authors and publishers for music represented by SUISA Digital and used in videos on its Snapchat platform.”

Snapchat is a popular online platform that offers a wide range of music for its users to embed in videos and listen to free of charge. The society said it has failed to create a licensing agreement with Snapchat despite following up for almost two years.

On the contrary, Snap has created licensing agreements with the likes of Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment in the past two years.

SUISA hit a roadblock because Snap believes that it does not use any songs from SUISA Digital’s repertoire.

However, SUISA contends that numerous works in its repertoire are available on the Snapchat platform and are being used by users without Snap having acquired a license from SUISA Digital.

SUISA Digital wants to ensure the authors and publishers that it represents are “adequately compensated for the ongoing, illegal use of their creative work.”

It further demands that Snap “fully disclose its figures relating to its uses and to the turnover realized with its music offers” on the Snapchat platform.

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