The Tool Desk
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Who sued Meta—and did Eminem personally file the lawsuit?
The plaintiffs are Eight Mile Style, LLC and Martin Affiliated, LLC, music-publishing entities that say they own or control the compositions at issue. Eminem, whose legal name is Marshall Mathers, is described as the artist who recorded many of the works, but he is not a named plaintiff in the case caption.
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The case is Eight Mile Style, LLC et al. v. Meta Platforms, Inc. et al., No. 2:25-cv-11618, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The defendants named in the case are Meta Platforms, Inc., Instagram, LLC and WhatsApp, LLC. The complaint was filed May 30, 2025.
What does the complaint accuse Meta of doing?
The publishers allege that Meta reproduced and stored copies of 243 musical compositions in music libraries for Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, then made the music available through platform features. The complaint identifies tools including Stories, Reels, Original Audio and Reels Remix. These are allegations in the publishers’ complaint, not findings made after a trial.
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The complaint also describes licensing discussions, including contact with the agency Audiam and direct talks with Eight Mile Style, and says those discussions did not produce a license. Meta disputed aspects of the plaintiffs’ account of Audiam’s relationship to them, as the judge noted. The court’s ruling did not establish that Meta lacked a license.
What did the judge decide?
On June 16, 2026, U.S. District Judge Brandy R. McMillion allowed the direct-infringement claim to proceed. At this stage, the court assessed whether the complaint’s allegations were sufficient to continue—not whether the alleged copying occurred or whether the publishers will ultimately prevail. The judge found the allegation that Meta reproduced and stored the compositions in its music libraries sufficient at the pleading stage, rejecting Meta’s argument that the complaint needed more specific allegations about each work.
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Three other claims were dismissed
The order dismissed inducement, contributory infringement and vicarious infringement. The judge found that the complaint did not provide specific facts about infringing acts by platform users. She also declined to treat encouragement to use platform tools as encouragement to infringe when those tools can be used lawfully. On vicarious liability, the alleged direct financial benefit was not sufficiently connected to the compositions. The order also treated inducement as not a separate standalone claim.
“And while Meta may encourage its users to use the platforms’ tools, the Court is unwilling to equate an encouragement to use the tools with an encouragement to infringe, especially when the tools can be used in a non-infringing way.”
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How much money is the lawsuit seeking?
The complaint requests actual damages and other remedies or, alternatively, maximum statutory damages of $150,000 per work for 243 works across three platforms. Multiplying those figures produces $109.35 million. That is the plaintiffs’ requested maximum calculation in their 2025 complaint—not a court award, settlement, judicial valuation or finding of liability.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What happens next in the case?
The June 16, 2026 order directed Meta to answer the surviving direct-infringement claim by July 7, 2026. Later docket activity—including whether an answer was filed, a scheduling order entered, or the case otherwise changed—has not been verified here. The established procedural outcome is therefore limited to the June order: one claim proceeded past the dismissal stage, and three were dismissed.
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Sources
- Filed complaint, May 30, 2025
- Opinion and Order, June 16, 2026, Document 35
- Music Business Worldwide, contemporaneous report, June 17, 2026
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