SOCAN Sues Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ) Over Licensing Fees: Report

The Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ) is being sued by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) for copyright infringement and failure to pay royalties for approximately three years, according to a report by the National Post.

SOCAN, which is responsible for granting licences and collecting royalties on licensed music in Canada, claims in the lawsuit filed in Federal Court that since at least July 2022, the festival’s organizers “have failed to obtain a license from SOCAN and have not paid any royalties or submitted any report forms to SOCAN.”

The court claim for copyright infringement, which was filed July 3 (the same day the festival began), cites The Festival international d’été de Québec Inc. and BLEUFEU as defendants in the case.

"Bleufeu and Festival d’été de Québec operate FEQ, one of Canada’s largest music festivals, drawing a total attendance of 1.4 million over 11 days and generating tens of millions in revenue each year," SOCAN writes in a statement on their website. "While Festival d’été de Québec is a registered charity, the performances it presents are virtually indistinguishable from those of its for-profit competitors, and Canadian law still requires it to pay licensing fees for those performances."

On Saturday (July 12), FEQ released a statement to Canadian Press that “fair remuneration, in accordance with the highest industry standards,” is one of the festival’s core values.

The organizers questioned SOCAN’s motives for “filing legal proceedings in the middle of the festival, despite discussions that had been ongoing until very recently" and that “proceeding in English, in the context of a Quebec cultural event, seems inappropriate and disconnected from the reality of the community.” FEQ said it had a different interpretation of the law from SOCAN, and that other comparable organizations shared the same interpretation.

On Tuesday (July 22), SOCAN released another statement on its website, "on Fair Compensation for Music Creators from Canadian Festivals." On it, the organization says the timing was driven by legal constraints, and the claim had to be filed by July 6 in order to include all performances from the 2022 festival.

The page includes a Q&A about SOCAN license fees, how and to whom they are distributed. Festivals are required by the Copyright Board of Canada to pay license fees to SOCAN in the amount of 3% of ticket sales and the equivalent of 3% of the amount paid to performers for free concerts, they write.

"All entities, regardless of tax status, must pay license fees for commercial live performances in public of musical works. The Copyright Act provides a limited exception in some cases for charitable organizations – but this doesn’t apply when admission is charged or when the performers, technicians, producers, vendors, or others working at the concert are paid."

Aside from FEQ, SOCAN confirms in the statement that they are also pursuing other proceedings "infringing festival performances."

One of Canada's biggest music festivals, FEQ, concluded on Sunday, July 13, after 11 days of programming. This year's iteration boasted popular artists from across the genre spectrum, including Avril Lavigne, Simple Plan, Shania Twain, Def Leppard, Slayer, Benson Boone and more.

Read Billboard Canada's coverage here and on Instagram.

This story was updated on July 24, 2024, with additional information from SOCAN's website.