Fitness startup Peloton’s decision to respond to music publishers’ copyright-infringement lawsuit with a counter-claim alleging anti-competitive behaviour has – and you may wish to sit down for this bombshell – not gone down well.
Peloton had suggested that the publishers had conspired with industry body the NMPA “to fix prices and to engage in a concerted refusal to deal with Peloton”.
Now the publishers have filed their own motion to dismiss this counter-claim, and they’re not happy, describing it (according to Billboard) as a “timeworn tactic of asserting a baseless antitrust counterclaim” that should be dismissed with prejudice. “Beyond the allegation that the ‘Coordinating Publishers’ all cut off negotiations at the same time, Peloton has alleged no facts circumstantially raising an inference of collusion,” it continued. “It focuses on the ‘Coordinating Publishers’’ participation in the same trade association…but mere participation in trade associations and industry events is not, by itself, evidence of collusion.” The case continues.
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