Rapper RBX refiles lawsuit accusing Spotify of ignoring streaming fraud

Rapper RBX has filed an amended lawsuit against Spotify, renewing his claim that the streaming platform turns a blind eye to streaming fraud when it benefits superstar artists, particularly Drake, Complete Music Update reported. Judge Josephine Staton dismissed RBX's original suit last month, ruling that the rapper, whose legal name is Eric Dwayne Collins, had failed to show Spotify owed him a duty of protection from fraudulent streams, and she questioned why the complaint focused so heavily on Drake given that he isn't named as a defendant. Staton allowed Collins to file an amended version, which he did earlier this month.

The new complaint still leans on allegations about stream manipulation connected to Drake's music, but expands on Collins's core theory: that Spotify's anti-fraud enforcement favors superstar artists at the expense of independent ones. While Spotify maintains it has invested heavily in systems to catch artificially boosted streams, Collins alleges the company is "selective" about which manipulated streams it actually cancels, and that it "intentionally ignores fraud committed by certain 'a-list' artists," letting those inflated numbers count toward a royalty pool shared by the whole industry.

The lawsuit puts a number on the alleged harm. "The scale of harm at issue in this litigation is enormous," it states, citing data analysis over "a nearly 48 month period through 2025" to estimate that streaming fraud on Spotify's platform has diverted at least $600 million in royalties away from other artists and labels. The filing also argues Spotify had a "duty to disclose" its uneven enforcement rather than "representing that it evenhandedly protects the integrity of its music royalty ecosystem."

Because Spotify pays out royalties from a single, finite pool shared across the platform, the amended complaint argues that every artist absorbs some of the alleged harm: the "injury" is "borne by every artist on the platform," who each end up with a smaller share of Spotify's revenue pool as a result. This is Collins's second attempt at the claim; he first sued Spotify over similar allegations in November 2025, calling the platform's anti-fraud efforts "nothing more than window dressing" at the time.

Spotify has pushed back firmly on the amended filing. It's a steep legal fight for a hip-hop artist taking on a platform of Spotify's size, and a company spokesperson told CMU the complaint "is baseless and doesn't address the deficiencies the court already identified in dismissing the original complaint," adding that Spotify intends to seek its dismissal. Whether the amended lawsuit survives that second attempt now rests with Judge Staton.