SALT LAKE CITY — Universal Media Group is baking up a lawsuit against Crumbl, accusing the company of using their copyrighted music in promotions without permission. The lawsuit, filed last Tuesday, seeks $150,000 for each instance of Crumbl using UMG music. If successful, Crumbl could owe more than $23 million.
Started by cousins Sawyer Helmsley and Jason McGowan in Logan less than a decade ago, Crumbl has grown its brand to become one of the biggest retail dessert chains in the country, with over 1,000 locations.
According to the lawsuit, Crumbl has largely been successful in using social media to grow its business. Plaintiffs even quote one of Crumbl's co-founders, Jason McGowan, who said, "[Crumbl's] strategy right from the beginning was social media."
However, according to the lawsuit, while Crumbl's social media videos have been so important to their marketing, they haven't paid for the privilege to use the sound recordings or musical compositions featured in them.
The plaintiffs list 159 uses of the sounds without payment to the artists or copyright holders. The songs include ones by Bruno Mars, Lizzo, Taylor Swift, Mariah Carey, Ariana Grande, and Beyoncé. "Defendants not only failed to pay for the use of the Plaintiffs' Musical Works, but by including these works in their promotional materials without Plaintiffs' consent, Defendants deprived Plaintiffs, their recording artists, and their songwriters of the ability to control how and where their musical works are used," the lawsuit states.
Another issue in the lawsuit is the use of influencers to promote the Crumbl brand. According to the plaintiffs, Crumbl partners with influencers, providing them perks and rewards in exchange for promoting the company. The lawsuit claims that Crumbl reviews, selects, reproduces, and reposts selected videos to Crumbl's own social media pages.
While platforms such as TikTok and Instagram are known for their use of music in videos, according to Universal Media Group, commercial activities without proper authorization are expressly prohibited. The lawsuit quotes Meta's (Instagram's parent company) legal section, which states, "Use of music for commercial or non-personal purposes in particular is prohibited unless you have obtained appropriate licenses."
Similarly, in TikTok's Terms of Service, a similar rule is stated as, "No rights are licensed with respect to sound recordings and the musical works embodied therein that are made available from or through the service."
In addition to the rules stated on the respective social media platforms, plaintiffs say that Crumbl would intentionally infringe on Universal Media Group's rights by posting musical works under "Original Audio." The lawsuit states, "Crumbl was aware of these express prohibitions and not only decided to ignore them, but in some instances uploaded Plaintiffs' Musical Works as 'original sounds' in a deliberate effort to circumvent the prohibitions or to mask the infringing nature of the Crumbl Videos."
In the lawsuit, Universal Media Group claims that on August 3, 2023, they sent Crumbl a cease-and-desist letter concerning the use of their recordings in promotional materials. However, according to the lawsuit, as of October 13, 2023, Crumbl had uploaded an additional 6 videos with UMG music and never made their previous videos unavailable.
The lawsuit also mentions a Crumbl Video posted to its TikTok account on January 23, 2024, in which Crumbl conceded that "legal said [Crumbl] can't use any trending audios.
The plaintiffs in the case are requesting that Crumbl pay $150,000 for each infringement on UMG property, including videos created by influencers that Crumbl later reshared or posted.
FOX 13 News has reached out to Crumbl to receive a statement on the lawsuit and will post their response when we hear back.
