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Warner Music sues Ray-Ban and Oakley owner over alleged unlicensed music use. Warner companies allege promotional social videos used at least 427 copyrighted works without permission, highlighting licensing requirements for paid and organic brand content. By Ella Karsai Published Oct 13, 2026 Warner Music Group companies have filed a lawsuit alleging unlicensed music use in promotional videos for brands including Ray-Ban and Oakley. Image: Limor Garfinkle

Warner Music sues Ray-Ban over use of Taylor Swift, Travis Scott clips. Warner Music Group (WMG) has launched a lawsuit against Ray-Ban's parent company. The label asserts that the eyewear company has used hundreds of its works in social media advertisements without paying for the rights. The complaint, obtained by Billboard, accuses Italian eyewear conglomerate EssilorLuxottica of infringing 427 copyrights owned by WMG. The music company is seeking the maximum statutory damages of $150,000 (£114,000) per work, adding up to a total of $64 million (£48.5 million). WMG alleges that EssilorLuxottica, which owns Ray-Ban, Oakley and Sunglasses Hut, regularly uses unlicensed music in ads to its more than 36 million followers across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. These videos have featured recordings by WMG artists including Charli and Dua Lipa, as well as compositions from Drake, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Travis Scott. According to the lawsuit, the ads have been "wildly successful" in selling sunglasses and have earned the company billions of dollars. "Defendants used the Plaintiffs' copyrighted works to build their brand profiles and drive sales without paying any compensation to Plaintiffs," reads the lawsuit. "Defendants not only failed to pay for the use of Plaintiffs' copyrighted works, but by including these works in the Luxottica videos without Plaintiffs' consent, Defendants deprived Plaintiffs and their artists and songwriters of the ability to control how and where their art is used." Over the past few years, music companies have launched a large-scale legal crackdown on the use of unlicensed tracks by brands on social media. While platforms like Instagram and TikTok have blanket licenses in place that allow individual users to soundtrack their videos, commercial accounts are required to purchase a 'sync licence'. Brands including Chili's, Marriott, and Designer Shoe Warehouse have settled legal cases over this issue.

Atlantic/WMG sues Ray-Ban owner Luxottica, demands over $64 million in damages as social media infringement crackdown continues. Atlantic/WMG sues Ray-Ban owner Luxottica, demands over $64 million in damages as social media infringement crackdown continues dylan smith october 12, 2026. The social media copyright crackdown continues: Warner Music Group (WMG) is now suing multiple subsidiaries of eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica for allegedly infringing on north of 400 compositions and recordings in Instagram and TikTok posts. Plaintiffs including Atlantic Music Group and Warner Chappell recently submitted the straightforward infringement suit to a New York federal court, naming as defendants Luxottica Group, Oakley, Eye Buy Direct, and Costa Del Mar. The entities, the legal text spells out, "are all companies in operation for and service of EssilorLuxottica," the conglomerate that is in its own words "home to some of the most beloved and well-recognized eyecare and eyewear brands in the world." Among said brands are Ray-Ban and the aforementioned Oakley, besides Persol, Arnette, and Oliver Peoples; the Paris- and Milan-headquartered business also has licensing pacts in place with Giorgio Armani, Burberry, and more. But the way Warner Music sees the situation, the owned brands, purportedly boasting "over 36.14 million followers across" all platforms, have achieved financial "success through their blatant, willful, and repeated copyright infringement" on social media. Behind the clear-cut claim, WMG's specific allegations won't come as a surprise to those who've followed rightsholders' (and especially the major labels') many social-focused copyright actions. Though today's suit cites litigation involving Bang Energy - which declared bankruptcy in 2022 and sold to Monster Beverage the following year - similar complaints have been filed against Designer Shoe Warehouse, universities, NBA teams, professional hockey teams, restaurant chains, Crumbl, Pacsun, Drew Barrymore, and others yet. In a nutshell, social platforms' song libraries are cleared for personal but not commercial use. As such, the listed defendants (several having already settled) allegedly violated copyright law by failing to obtain standalone licenses for the protected music in their uploads and commissioned influencer posts. Bearing this background information in mind, Warner Music maintains that the relevant eyewear brands complemented their videos with a portion of the industry's "most popular, timeless and/or viral songs" sans authorization. Furthermore, the defendants allegedly "violated warnings from Instagram, TikTok, Meta, and YouTube that alerted users that copyrighted music could not be used in posts without first obtaining a license," according to the suit, which includes a screenshot of TikTok's "Music Usage Confirmation" page. The clips in question "have been critical to" the companies' above-noted financial performance, per the action, which attempts to illustrate a direct connection between the "wildly successful" social strategy and EssilorLuxottica's nearly "$15 billion in fiscal year 2025" revenue in North America. Evidently, two purported cease-and-desist letters - one sent in December 2025, the other in May 2026 - failed to bring about an amicable resolution here. All told, Warner Music claims that the social videos associated with Ray-Ban, Oakley, and others infringed on "at least 427" of its recordings and compositions. That total includes approximately 140 recordings, among them tracks popularized by Dua Lipa, the Ramones, Charli XCX, the Black Keys, and Van Halen, the complete list shows. Consequently, WMG is seeking relief for direct, vicarious, and contributory infringement alike, with the latter claim tied to influencers' posts. And when factoring for the maximum statutory damages of $150,000 per allegedly infringed work, the sought sum exceeds $64 million. DMN reached out to EssilorLuxottica for comment but didn't receive a response in time for publishing.