The Munich Regional Court left no gray area for AI companies this time. On July 31, the court ruled that AI music generation platform Suno used tracks represented by German music rights organization GEMA — including Boney M's "Daddy Cool," Lou Bega's "Mambo No. 5," and Alphaville's "Forever Young" — to train its model without any authorization. The court found that Suno's actions violated both German and U.S. copyright law, and ordered Suno to pay damages to GEMA, though the amount has not yet been disclosed.
The lawsuit had been running since January 2025. GEMA's argument was straightforward: Suno used copyright-protected songs to train its AI without seeking licenses or paying any compensation to songwriters. Following the ruling, GEMA CEO Dr. Tobias Holzmüller didn't pull any punches: "AI models built on stolen intellectual property have no legal protection whatsoever."
More importantly, the ruling sets a precedent that extends beyond this single case — any AI company wanting to use music from GEMA's repertoire going forward will need to pay for licensing, and can no longer hide behind the "training data" excuse. GEMA board chairman Dr. Ralf Weigand framed the win in even bigger terms: "This ruling sends a powerful message worldwide: creativity has value, and creators' rights must be respected." He also noted that the precedent could help GEMA assert rights in other countries, including the United States, with implications for creators globally.
Suno has not accepted the ruling and is reportedly considering an appeal. It's worth noting this isn't GEMA's first win against an AI company — back in November, GEMA secured a ruling against OpenAI, with a court finding that ChatGPT's developer had violated European copyright law. And this isn't Suno's first legal battle either: in 2024, the three major labels — Warner, Sony Music, and Universal Music — jointly sued Suno over what they called "almost unimaginable" copyright infringement. Warner later settled in 2025 and signed a direct licensing deal with Suno.
The broader context matters too. Streaming platform Deezer recently revealed that AI-generated music now accounts for over half of all daily uploads on its platform — the first time AI-made tracks have outnumbered human-made ones. Deezer has rolled out detection tools to scan for AI-generated content across the platform. TIDAL has explicitly stated it won't pay royalties for fully AI-generated music. Spotify has removed 75 million tracks classified as "spam" and cracked down on accounts impersonating real artists. The UK government also recently dropped its controversial proposal that would have let AI companies use copyrighted works without licensing.
Further details on the damages amount and Suno's appeal remain undisclosed at this time.
