SOCAN and Festival d’été de Québec Reach Agreement After 2025 Legal Dispute Over Licensing Fees

Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) and Festival d’été international de Québec (FEIQ) have reached an agreement after a months-long licensing fees dispute.

In July 2025, the licensing and royalties organization, which is responsible for granting licenses and collecting royalties on licensed music in Canada, sued the Quebec music festival for copyright infringement and failure to pay royalties for approximately three years.

The claim, which cited The Festival international d’été de Québec Inc. and BLEUFEU as defendants, alleged that since at least July 2022, festival organizers “failed to obtain a license” from SOCAN and didn’t pay any royalties or submit any report forms.

Now, the two parties shared that they have resolved the claim.

Both sides acknowledge the importance of paying equitable wages to songwriters and composers in the live music space.

“Fair compensation is fundamental to a healthy live music sector,” says SOCAN CEO Jennifer Brown in a public statement via SOCAN's Words & Music publication (due to legal considerations, neither SOCAN nor FEQ were able to grant interviews).

“When every contributor’s work is recognized and valued, the entire industry becomes stronger and more sustainable.”

Nicolas Racine, CEO of BLEUFEU and FEIQ, echoes a similar sentiment:

“We have always placed artists and musical creation at the heart of our approach,” he says. “The dialogue with SOCAN has allowed us to find common ground. We are now looking ahead, committed to continuing our contribution to a strong and dynamic music ecosystem.”

Last year, SOCAN filed the copyright infringement court claim on July 3, coinciding with the first day of the 11-day music festival, which concluded on July 13.

The 2025 edition of FEQ featured performances from many popular artists, including Avril Lavigne, Simple Plan, Shania Twain, Alessia Cara, Benson Boone and more.

FEQ promptly responded, noting that “fair remuneration, in accordance with the highest industry standards,” was one of the festival’s core values, while claiming that they had a different interpretation of the law from SOCAN that corresponded to other comparable organizations. In addition, they questioned SOCAN’s motives for filing during the festival and their desire to pursue court proceedings in English.

SOCAN claimed that the case had to be filed by July 6 to include all performances from the 2022 festival.

In an explainer, SOCAN wrote that festivals are required by the Copyright Board of Canada to pay license fees to SOCAN, including 3% of ticket sales and the equivalent of 3% of the amount paid to performers for free concerts. They noted that all entities “must pay license fees for commercial live performances in public of musical works.”

In its message last year, SOCAN also wrote that they were pursuing other proceedings "involving infringing festival performances."