A German court ruled on Friday that AI music generator Suno infringed copyright in a lawsuit brought by German collecting society GEMA, one of the biggest European defeats yet for a generative music company over its training data.
The Munich Regional Court found that Suno was not entitled to use music represented by GEMA to train its AI tools without a license or payment to rightsholders. The court also ordered Suno to disclose information about the revenue it has earned from the technology and to pay damages, the amount of which has not yet been set, Reuters reported.
The decision is a first-instance ruling and can still be appealed to a higher court. Suno said it disagrees with the outcome. “We disagree with today’s ruling, which rests on a fundamental mischaracterization of how Suno’s technology works, how it is used and how U.S. law applies,” the company told Music Business Worldwide, adding that it is evaluating all available options, including an appeal.
GEMA, which represents the copyrights of around 95,000 members in Germany, including composers, lyricists and music publishers, as well as more than two million rightsholders worldwide, filed its lawsuit at the Munich court in January 2025. The society argued that Suno’s tool generated audio “misleadingly similar” to originals such as “Forever Young”, “Mambo No. 5” and “Daddy Cool”, and presented evidence at a March hearing that the AI-generated output matched original compositions in melody, harmony and rhythm.
The ruling follows a separate victory for GEMA at the same court, which decided largely in its favor against OpenAI in November 2025 over ChatGPT’s use of German song lyrics. That case was the first time a European court had found in favor of creators whose works were used by a generative AI system. Both cases were heard by the Munich court’s 42nd Civil Chamber, which specializes in copyright.
Suno also faces litigation elsewhere. The Recording Industry Association of America sued Suno and rival AI music generator Udio in June 2024 on behalf of Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, alleging “mass infringement” of copyright. Warner Music settled with Suno in November 2025 and struck a licensing partnership with the company, while Suno remains in litigation with Universal and Sony. Suno also faces a separate copyright claim in Europe from Denmark’s collecting society Koda.
The Munich decision lands as the AI music sector faces mounting pressure to license the repertoire used to train its models. GEMA has said it wants AI developers to license its catalog and pay the authors it represents. When the case was brought, GEMA CEO Tobias Holzmuller said the market for generative AI had “so far lacked basic principles such as transparency, fairness and respect.” Suno raised more than $400 million in a Series D round in June that valued the company at $5.4 billion.
The ruling could shape how other European courts treat AI training on copyrighted music and strengthens rightsholder demands for licensing deals. GEMA has also launched “PLAI”, a fully licensed dataset for training AI music tools, as it pushes for a paid licensing market in the sector.
Sources: Music Business Worldwide, Music Ally, Reuters
Author: Technology Desk
discussion