A court in São Paulo has ordered the permanent blocking of a website that sold artificial plays on music streaming platforms, marking the third ruling under Operation Authêntica, the Brazilian enforcement initiative targeting fraudulent engagement services.
The so-called ‘first-instance ruling’ concerns Boom de Seguidores, a service that offered for sale artificial plays on Spotify, SoundCloud, and YouTube Music, as well as fake likes, followers, and comments on social media platforms.
The court confirmed that the sale of such services constitutes misleading advertising and is illegal under Brazilian law. It ordered what’s described as “the permanent and dynamic blocking” of the domain www.boomdeseguidores.com.br and any related domains, and directed the defendant to cease offering or marketing services involving coordinated inauthentic behavior by any means. Penalty fees were also imposed.
The ruling follows two previous decisions under Operation Authêntica, against services known as Seguidores and Turbine Digital.
“Robust enforcement is part of the meaningful and sustained action needed across the industry.”
Melissa Morgia, Global Chief Content Protection Officer at IFPI, said: “Under Operation Authentica, 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.”
Morgia added: “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-Música 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.”
Rosa added: “In the case of recorded music, the website’s ‘marketing services’ included the sale of fake and artificial ‘plays’ of music on streaming platforms, what 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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What is Operation Authêntica?
Operation Authêntica was launched in 2023 and is led by CyberGaeco and the Consumer Protection Prosecutor’s Office of the State of São Paulo, with support from IFPI and APDIF do Brasil. The initiative targets the commercialization of fraudulent engagement services, including those that artificially inflate plays on music streaming platforms.
Streaming fraud has become a priority enforcement area for the recorded music industry. In February, IFPI Chief Executive Victoria Oakley and RIAA CEO Mitch Glazier co-authored an op-ed published by MBW calling on the industry to take coordinated action against fraudulent streaming activity. Oakley and Glazier argued that fraudsters exploit gaps in platform protections, deploying bot armies to generate artificial plays and divert income from legitimate creators — a problem they said has been industrialized by generative AI.
Brazil is one of the world’s fastest-growing recorded music markets. According to the IFPI‘s Global Music Report 2026, published last month, Brazilranked as the world’s eighth-largest recorded music market in 2025, up one place from the prior year. Latin America was the fastest-growing region globally, with revenues up 17.1% year-on-year.
The same report flagged streaming fraud as one of two themes shaping the industry’s next chapter. Oakley said at the time of the report’s release that the organizations “with the data, scale and leverage to prevent this fraudulent activity, including streaming services, content aggregators and distributors, must take decisive action.”
The court’s order for “dynamic” domain blocking — extending to any related domains, not just the primary URL — reflects an enforcement approach designed to prevent operators from simply relaunching under a new web address, a tactic common among providers of artificial engagement services.Music Business Worldwide
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.musicbusinessworldwide.com ’
