Spotify and its CEO Daniel Ek lost a bid to skirt a deposition they deem “unnecessary and unduly burdensome” for a second time. According to Bloomberg Law, Judge Aleta A. Trauger handed down her decision on Friday (July 15). Trauger reaffirmed the magistrate judge’s March 31 decision, which found deposing Ek is relevant to the case and “won’t cause him unnecessary annoyance or burden.”
A federal judge first ordered Ek to sit for a deposition in a copyright lawsuit over Eminem’s music in April after rejecting Spotify’s arguments he’s not personally involved in “day-to-day” licensing operations or that he’s too busy to schedule the case into his calendar.
The streaming giant insisted Ek had “little information to offer “about the lawsuit and accused plaintiffs/Eminem’s publishing company Eight Mile Style of dragging him into a deposition simply to “harass and annoy” him. But U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffery S. Frensley ruled Ek would simly have to find a way to address the issue at hand.
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“Undoubtedly Mr. Ek has a full schedule [and] the Court credits Spotify’s assertion that he is very busy indeed,” Judge Frensley wrote. “Yet, the issue of proper licensing relationships with the artists whose work comprises the entirety of Spotify’s business and its sole product is surely also a matter of importance to Spotify, worthy of some of Mr. Ek’s time and attention.”
Eight Mile Style LLC sued Spotify in 2019 for copyright infringement of 243 Eminem songs, saying the streaming service pretended to have licenses to the song.
