Nykaa Seeks To Bring Meta Into Legal Tussle With Zee: Report
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BPC major Nykaa has reportedly asked the Delhi High Court (HC) to name Meta as a party in the copyright case filed against it by Zee Entertainment Enterprises, Reuters reported.
Earlier this month, Zee moved the Delhi HC against Nykaa claiming that the company had used its copyrighted songs in promotional content without authorisation. Zee jas sought $210K in damages, alleging that Nykaa violated its licensing deal with Meta by using its songs for commercial purposes in Instagram reels.
Nykaa has now moved the court to include Meta as a party to the case, claiming only Meta can confirm whether its use of music clips violated licensing terms. It has also argued that the dispute should have first gone to mediation.
The media giant had earlier flagged 12 Instagram reels in the case, claiming that Nykaa used its music “without securing any permissions or authorisations”. Nykaa’s legal team had informed the court that the identified links had already been taken down. The company avoided an admission of wrongdoing.
Further, Zee is seeking assurance that Nykaa would avoid unauthorised use of its copyrighted songs rather than merely taking down the reels that it had already identified.
Notably, Zee’s musical catalogue spans over 19,450 songs across 17 languages. While Instagram’s music library makes tracks freely accessible to individuals’ personal accounts, any brand seeking to use these tracks for commercial purposes must independently obtain authorisation from the copyright holder.
The case has major implications for the Indian media ecosystem, given the involvement of two prominent listed companies. It also comes amid the rising frequency of brands using short-form video content as a marketing channel for their products, often using popular tracks as background music for promotional advertisements.
A few other similar cases are also being heard across court rooms in India at the moment. For example, in 2020, T-Series sued ShareChat for unauthorised use of its music on Moj and other short-video platforms. Another case involved Tips Industries and Wynk Music.
Zee itself has also filed a similar case against Reliance-Disney joint venture JioStar.
The broader trend so far signals that courts are increasingly narrowing the scope for commercial use of music by large brands and platforms. In the Tips Industries case, the Delhi High Court had ruled that digital platforms cannot rely on statutory licensing provisions to stream music without explicit consent from rights holders.
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