An AI music company has suffered a landmark legal defeat in Europe. On Friday, the Munich Regional Court ruled that Suno — the AI music generation startup — violated copyright law by training its models on songs without authorization.
The case was brought by GEMA, Germany's state-mandated collecting society, which represents songwriters, composers and publishers. The court found that Suno had no right to process GEMA-protected works and ordered the company to disclose the revenues it earned from the infringement.
It is one of the first major copyright rulings against an AI music firm in Europe, and lands amid a wave of global litigation over AI training data. Suno has previously argued that its use of copyrighted music for training falls under fair use; that defense has already been rejected in the US, where a court last year found "substantial similarity" between Suno outputs and copyrighted recordings.
Because EU copyright law is harmonized across member states, the Munich ruling could carry weight well beyond Germany — and GEMA's victory may encourage collecting societies elsewhere to file similar claims against AI companies.
