Spotify sued for allegedly allowing billions of fraudulent streams for Drake songs, claims rapper RBX

Streaming giant Spotify has been hit with a federal class action lawsuit accusing the company of allowing billions of fraudulent streams' that allegedly inflated the popularity of songs by Canadian superstar Drake.

Spotify sued for billions over fraudulent streams

The case, filed Sunday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, claims that Spotify knowingly turned a blind eye to streaming manipulation that financially disadvantaged other artists.

The complaint was brought forward by rapper RBX — known for his work alongside Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg — both as an individual and “on behalf of other members of the general public similarly situated.”

What has the lawsuit stated?

It alleges that between January 2022 and September 2025, automated bot accounts were used to generate massive numbers of fake streams for Drake’s catalogue, boosting his visibility on charts and playlists while undermining the platform’s fairness.

“The more users (including fake users) Spotify has, the more advertisements it can sell, the more profits the company can report, all of which serves to increase the purported value delivered to shareholders,” the lawsuit states.

“This mass-scale fraudulent streaming causes massive financial harm to legitimate artists, songwriters, producers and other rightsholders whose proportional share is decreased as a result of fraudulent stream inflation on Spotify’s platform,” it continues.

The suit does not accuse Drake himself of wrongdoing or criminal conduct, and representatives for the rapper have not yet commented. Spotify also declined to issue an immediate response to the allegations early Monday.

Streaming fraud has been a problem for a while now

Streaming fraud has long been a controversial issue across major platforms, with industry watchdogs warning that advances in artificial intelligence and sophisticated spoofing tools have made the practice harder to detect. Industry estimates suggest that a significant percentage of all online streams are inauthentic — the result of automated “bot farms” designed to artificially boost numbers.

Because royalties on digital music services are distributed from a shared revenue pool, such fraudulent plays can distort the ecosystem, diverting money from genuine artists to inflated accounts. RBX’s complaint argues that Spotify’s existing anti-fraud measures are “inadequate at best” and calls on the company to strengthen its detection systems and transparency practices.

If successful, the case could have major implications for how streaming platforms monitor, report, and monetise plays — and may force the industry to confront a problem many insiders admit has quietly plagued it for years.