German Court Rules Suno Infringed Music Copyrights in Training

A Munich court ruled July 31, 2026, that AI music generator Suno violated copyrights held by GEMA, Germany's music collecting society, by training its models on protected songs without authorization and reproducing them on demand. The decision carries implications that extend well beyond the six songs at the center of the case.

GEMA, which represents over 100,000 composers, lyricists, and publishers in Germany, filed suit in January 2025 after Suno ignored licensing requests. The case focused on well-known tracks including Boney M.'s "Rasputin," Alphaville's "Forever Young," and four other compositions that GEMA's attorneys demonstrated could be reproduced nearly note-for-note by prompting Suno with lyrics, style cues, and titles.

Why it matters

This ruling establishes that European courts can assert jurisdiction over AI training conducted entirely in the United States, as long as the resulting outputs reach EU users. That precedent exposes every AI company serving European customers to potential litigation under EU law, regardless of where their models are built. The decision also highlights a strategic gap: rights holders who settle early may negotiate without the leverage of court findings or mandatory financial disclosure.

The admission that decided the case

While the court's written opinion analyzed how Suno's models had "memorized" complete songs during training, Judge Elke Schwager noted that analysis was ultimately corroborative. Suno had already conceded before the verdict that it trained on GEMA's repertoire without payment. The company's defense rested entirely on the argument that training doesn't require a license—an argument the court rejected.

The court also noted, without dispute from Suno, that the company obtained training data through stream-ripping: downloading audio from the open web rather than through any licensed channel. That admission, combined with the rejected legal theory, effectively decided the outcome.

Jurisdiction reaches across borders

The ruling's broadest impact comes from its jurisdictional finding. This marks the first time a European court has ruled on AI training conducted entirely outside its territory. Under Section 131 of Germany's VGG statute governing collecting societies, the court held that German law applies because training data was stored in the model and outputs were served to German users.

If this holding survives appeal, AI companies with any EU user base face potential exposure to EU collecting-society litigation, regardless of where their models are trained or their servers located.

The Warner settlement looks different now

Warner Music settled its own lawsuit against Suno in November 2025, signing a licensing deal without ever obtaining a court ruling on infringement. That settlement included Suno's acquisition of Warner's Songkick platform. No judge ruled on liability, and Suno never admitted wrongdoing.

GEMA now holds an actual judgment finding actual infringement, plus a court order compelling Suno to disclose revenue tied to the six infringing works. Warner negotiated its licensing fee without either advantage—no judicial finding of infringement and no compelled look at Suno's financial records. If GEMA's eventual per-stream or per-work rate exceeds what Warner accepted, the major label may have underpriced its catalog.

What the disclosure order reveals

Suno's public financials are substantial: a $5.4 billion valuation following a $400 million Series D, with CEO Mikey Shulman disclosing 2 million paid subscribers generating roughly $300 million in annual recurring revenue. What remains private is which portion of that revenue traces to GEMA's repertoire specifically.

The court's disclosure order forces that information into the open before damages are calculated. While U.S. statutory copyright damages can reach $150,000 per work—putting Universal and Sony's parallel Boston litigation in the billions—German law calculates damages based on actual revenue and license-fee equivalents. The court now has the financial detail to price that calculation.

Outstanding litigation

The judgment isn't final. Suno has indicated it disagrees with the ruling and is evaluating an appeal. Under German civil procedure, however, a first-instance judgment can be enforced during appeal, meaning GEMA can act on the injunction and disclosure order without waiting years.

Suno faces additional exposure. Denmark's collecting society Koda sued in November 2025 over similar allegations involving Danish artists including Aqua and MØ. In the United States, Universal and Sony's suits remain active, seeking statutory damages potentially running into the billions.

Virginie Berger first reported these details for Forbes, noting this is GEMA's second win against an AI company in nine months, following a November 2025 ruling against OpenAI over memorized song lyrics in ChatGPT.