Triller is facing more legal problems as Sony Music Entertainment has filed a lawsuit against the company for alleged missed payments. According to the lawsuit filed on Monday (Aug. 29), Triller failed to fulfill its obligations on time, totaling millions of dollars. The company has not yet paid the outstanding fees.
Billboard has reported that Sony sent several requests for payment to Triller but received “near-total radio silence” in response. Finally, in July, Triller was notified of the material breach in its agreement, and on Aug. 8, the deal between the companies was effectively terminated.
Sony is also suing the company for copyright infringement, damages, and an injunction. The lawsuit states that “Triller has continued to reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, display, create derivative works, and otherwise exploit the valuable Sony Music Content in connection with the Triller App.”
In 2016, Sony signed a licensing agreement with Triller that changed several times, with the most recent agreement – titled “the Eleventh Amendment”- taking effect on Dec. 1, 2020. In the “Eleventh Amendment,” Sony was to receive an initial payment followed by several more payments from March. 1 through Nov. 1. Triller allegedly never sent the monthly payments or interest accrued on overdue fees.
Triller already has an ongoing lawsuit against Swizz Beatz, Timbaland, and their battle platform Verzuz. The duo is suing Triller for breach of contract, claiming it owes them more than $28 million after acquiring their live-streaming music series Verzuz.
In the lawsuit, Swizz Beatz and Timbaland claim the company failed to deliver a large settlement promised in March 2022 after they agreed to sell Verzuz to Triller in Jan. 2021. They were supposed to be paid $9 million each by March. 17, as stipulated in the contract. After that, Triller would pay each of them $500,000 on the first of every month for 10 months.
Currently, the lawsuit is in progress.