Suno loses landmark lawsuit to GEMA in Munich AI case

AI music platform Suno loses landmark lawsuit to German collecting society GEMA after a Munich Regional Court ruled the company breached German and U.S. copyright law by training on, storing, and reproducing GEMA repertoire without a license—covering both model training and generated output.

Key Takeaways

• The Munich Regional Court found Suno breached German and U.S. copyright law through unlicensed use of GEMA works.
• The ruling covers systematic commercial use in both AI training and output generation, and calls for licensing.
• GEMA based its claim on six well-known songs it said Suno could essentially reproduce via basic prompts.
• The win follows GEMA’s earlier AI victory against OpenAI over unlicensed lyrics.
• Suno, valued at $5.4 billion after a recent $400 million Series D, did not immediately comment.

What did the Munich court decide?

According to Variety, German music collection society GEMA won its case against generative music platform Suno on Friday. The Munich Regional Court ruled Suno breached German and U.S. copyright law by training its AI systems on songs from GEMA’s repertoire and by storing and reproducing them.

Full specifics of the German ruling were not made public. A GEMA press release said the decision requires AI companies to pay to license material “for the systematic use of GEMA’s repertoire and its commercial exploitation,” covering both model training and output generation.

GEMA CEO Dr Tobias Holzmüller said the chamber made clear that AI models built on stolen intellectual property have no protection under the law, and that AI service providers must pay for licenses rather than taking members’ works free of charge.

Which tracks did GEMA use to prove infringement?

GEMA, which has around 100,000 members, accused Massachusetts-based Suno of infringement over six songs: “Atemlos,” “Daddy Cool,” “Rasputin,” “Big in Japan,” “Forever Young,” and “Mambo No. 5.” The society said it had been able to essentially reproduce those tracks on Suno through basic prompting, even though the platform’s model is to generate “new” sound-based material.

GEMA also argued Suno “ingested” members’ works to train its models without licensing them—something Suno had partially admitted in 2024. In a 2024 U.S. court filing in a separate case brought by Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Warner Music Group, Suno said its training data includes essentially all music files of reasonable quality accessible on the open internet, combined with similarly available text descriptions. Warner later reached a licensing deal with Suno; the other two majors remain plaintiffs, with a decision expected next year.

Why does this ruling matter for AI music?

The victory comes roughly nine months after GEMA won another AI-related lawsuit against OpenAI over unlicensed lyrics. GEMA’s broader aim has been to build an E.U. legal framework that addresses prior unlicensed use of copyrighted material and sets a path for licensed use going forward, including a proposed licensing system for AI companies’ use of music.

AI firms have often argued that training on copyrighted works falls under fair use. Rightsholders counter that the tools would not exist without their catalogs. For readers following platform and rights fights, more coverage lives in our Streaming & TV Alerts hub.

Suno recently raised $400 million in Series D funding, valuing the company at $5.4 billion. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On its website, Suno writes: “Music doesn’t stop. Neither do we.”