• The buzzy exercise startup Peloton is facing a $300 million claim that it used songs by artists including Taylor Swift, The Beatles, and many other prominent musicians without proper licenses.
  • The National Music Publishers’ Association originally filed a suit in March accusing Peloton of using more than 1,000 songs without a license.
  • Now the NMPA has updated the suit, claiming it has found a further 1,200 songs Peloton used without license. It has doubled the damages it’s seeking to $300 million.
  • Peloton is gearing up for its initial public offering and is pursuing a countersuit accusing the NMPA of anticompetitive conduct.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The buzzy exercise-bike startup Peloton has been accused of stealing many more songs than previously alleged in a lawsuit by a group of music publishers.

The National Music Publishers’ Association originally filed a suit against Peloton in March accusing the company of using more than 1,000 songs in its virtual exercise classes without paying for licenses. Some of the songs mentioned in the lawsuit subsequently vanished, to the dismay of users.

Now the NMPA has filed an amended suit after claiming it found a further 1,200 infringing songs – upping the damages sought to $300 million, double the original figure of $150 million. Songs by Taylor Swift and Adele were among those added to the list, Forbes reported.

The NMPA told The Verge these songs were uncovered through legal discovery.

"Newly discovered works include some of the most famous and popular songs ever recorded, such as 'Georgia On My Mind,' 'I Can See For Miles,' and 'I Saw Her Standing There,' a spokesman told The Verge in a statement.

Read more: Peloton, the fitness startup with a cultlike following, could go public at an $8 billion valuation. Insiders reveal why its business seems set to explode.

The amended lawsuit comes just ahead of Peloton's planned initial public offering. After the initial suit was filed, Peloton launched a countersuit accusing the NMPA of anticompetitive behavior, instigating a "coordinated effort" among its members to "fix prices and to engage in a concerted refusal to deal with Peloton."

Peloton reiterated this position following this amended suit in a statement sent to Business Insider: "NMPA has again revealed its anti-competitive objective in this matter. In March, NMPA requested an expedited trial schedule, to which Peloton readily agreed. On the eve of court-ordered mediation, NMPA sought to alter the optics around its lawsuit by filing exaggerated new claims prior to the mediation while also transparently timing its filing to capitalize on Peloton's inability to publicly respond in detail during our quiet period."

Business Insider was not immediately able to contact the NMPA.

You can read the NMPA's updated complaint here:

The National MusicPublishe... by Anonymous x0vjYq onScribd