Blur drummer and Labour candidate Dave Rowntree in class action lawsuit over royalties
Labour candidate for Mid Sussex and Blur drummer Dave Rowntree is leading a lawsuit against Performing Rights Society over allegations of violating UK and EU competition rules so-called ‘Black Box’ music royalties.
Dave Rowntree is named on a collective proceedings claim form filed to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) against British music copyright collective Performing Rights Society (PRS).
PRS has more than 165,000 members, most of which are songwriters and its role it to collect royalties direct from licensees in the UK (such as television broadcasters, radio stations, restaurants, and bars) who play the musical works of PRS members in the UK public.
The claim alleges that PRS is violating UK and EU competition rules because it unfairly distributes so-called ‘Black Box’ income.
According to a press statement, Black Box is the name in the music industry for royalties paid to PRS that it has not been able to allocate to the owner to whom it should be paid.
The statement stated that most of the ‘Black Box’ income belongs to PRS’s writer members, but “distribution of the income is unfairly skewed in favour of publishers who end up receiving a large portion of the income that should be paid to writers.”
The law firm instructed in this is Maitland Walker, with senior partner Julian Maitland-Walker and parnter Adrian Render leading on the action. A summary of the collective proceedings claim form was submitted to the CAT on Tuesday.
According to the claim form, the proposed class representative seeks an end to this alleged unfair royalty distribution practice and to recover for PRS songwriter members those royalties which should have been paid to them but were instead paid to publishers.
This proposed collective proceeding is brought on an opt-out basis and seeks an aggregate award of damages. As this legal action is structured as an opt-out legal claim, it means that all 160,000 writer members of PRS since March 2017, who reside in the UK, are automatically included within the class.
Commenting on the claim, Rowntree said: “I’ve agreed to be class representative because musicians’ royalties, perhaps to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds, have been paid to the wrong people. It’s because of bad data and processes, and in today’s digitally connected world, there’s no excuse for either.”
A spokesperson for PRS for Music said: “PRS for Music rejects the allegations set out in this claim, which are factually incorrect and fundamentally misrepresent our policies and operations.”
“PRS is owned by its members and works tirelessly to maximise the value of their music. PRS will continue to operate in the best interests of its members by robustly defending itself against these allegations,” they added.
The PRS said that it will be represented by City law firm Macfarlanes for its defence.
A musician himself, Rowntree is a drummer for the rock band Blur. But that’s not all, the 59 year old also trained to become a solicitor when Blur took a hiatus in 2006 and worked at London law firm Kingsley Napley.
He was also a Labour Party councillor for Norfolk County Council from 2017 until 2021. He is now standing for the Labour Party in the next General Election after being selected as a candidate for Mid Sussex in March.