Overview
- A federal judge dismissed the class-action complaint on Monday and gave RBX, born Eric Collins, 21 days to file an amended complaint addressing the court’s defects.
- The court rejected RBX’s negligence and California Unfair Competition Law claims because the filing did not show Spotify owed him a legal duty or that he suffered clear, measurable reliance-based harm.
- RBX’s original complaint accused Spotify of allowing massive bot-driven plays tied to Drake — citing figures as high as 37 billion streams — but the case never reached discovery and included no exhibits to support those numbers.
- Spotify has denied it benefits from fraudulent streams and points to investments in detection systems and prior enforcement actions as proof it works to remove suspicious activity.
- Industry observers say streaming fraud remains a persistent problem that can dilute payouts under the pro rata model and that advances in AI make detection harder, so an amended complaint could trigger discovery and wider scrutiny of platform safeguards.