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Mr. Probz, whose real name is Dennis Stehr,
argues that Sony deducted administration and distribution fees
from his royalties as they were passed through the company's
subsidiaries, in violation of his contract which specified they
should be determined when they were first collected -- "at
source".
Sony denied the allegations.
"We categorically dispute the claims made and are in the process
of reviewing the summons," Sony Music Entertainment Netherlands
said in an emailed response to Reuters questions.
Mr. Probz has around 5 million monthly listeners on Spotify and
the radio edit remix of "Waves" with Robin Schulz has been
streamed more than 800 million times. The Waves video has been
viewed 500 million times on YouTube.
In a preliminary ruling in 2020, the Amsterdam District Court
ordered Sony to return control of Stehr's music to his company
Left Lane BV, and to allow his auditor access to all documents
relating to the exploitation of his music from 2013-20.
Pim Keulen, a royalties expert advising Stehr during the legal
proceedings, said Sony had not given full access to auditor
Grant Thornton. However audits showed that Sony "systematically"
wrongly deducted fees leading to underpayment of 3-6% on
royalties Left Lane should have received from Spotify, TIDAL,
Amazon Music and Deezer among others, he said. ($1 = 1.0356
euros)
(Reporting by Toby Sterling, editing by Ed Osmond)
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