A court in São Paulo has issued another decision against a provider of services that enable streaming fraud.
The first instance ruling concerns the service known as Boom de Seguidores, which offered for sale ‘plays’ on Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube Music, as well as likes, followers and comments on social media platforms.
The court confirmed that the sale of artificial engagement services constitutes misleading advertising and is illegal under Brazilian law. It issued an order for the permanent and dynamic blocking of the domain and any other related domains.
It also ordered the defendant to refrain from offering or marketing services involving coordinated inauthentic behaviour by any means, and a payment of penalty fees.
Launched in 2023, Operation Authêntica is led by CyberGaeco and the Consumer Protection Prosecutor’s Office of the State of São Paulo and supported by IFPI and APDIF do Brasil. There was a heightened focus on the negative impact of streaming fraud at the recent IFPI Global Music Report event in London.
The Operation Authêntica initiative aims to combat the commercialisation of fraudulent engagement services, including services that artificially inflate plays on music streaming platforms. This is the third decision under Operation Authentica, following positive rulings against Seguidores and Turbine Digital.
Robust enforcement is part of the meaningful and sustained action needed across the industry
Melissa Morgia
Melissa Morgia, global chief content protection officer at IFPI, said: “Under Operation Authêntica, the courts have consistently confirmed that services that enable streaming fraud mislead consumers and are unlawful. This illicit business model commercialises fraud and in the music context, ultimately diverts royalties from legitimate creators. IFPI would like to thank the authorities for their ongoing efforts and will continue to support actions that create serious consequences for those involved.
“This decision is another step forward in fighting streaming fraud. Robust enforcement is part of the meaningful and sustained action needed across the industry. Companies at every stage of the streaming value chain – labels, distributors, platforms, aggregators – must take proactive steps to prevent, to detect and then to act on fraudulent activity.”
Paulo Rosa, president of Pro-Musica Brasil and APDIF do Brasil, said: “Pro-Música and APDIF applaud the decision taken by the Judge of the 12a Vara Cível of São Paulo-SP, in which the operators of the website ‘boom de seguidores.com.br’ were considered as offering misleading advertising and committing fraud, including the ones against the consumers, ordering such website to be shut down.
“In the case of recorded music, the website’s ‘marketing services’ included the sale of fake and artificial ‘plays’ of music on streaming platforms, which was clearly considered illegal and fraudulent. We also thank the State Public Attorney’s office of the state of São Paulo for their continuing efforts to protect the legitimate Brazilian music streaming market.”
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.musicweek.com ’
