On May 30, 2025, Eight Mile Style, the co-publisher of hundreds of songs by American rapper Eminem, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Michigan against Meta Platforms—the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The lawsuit accuses Meta of willfully and extensively infringing Eight Mile’s copyrights by making 243 Eminem songs available in its music library without authorization. Although Eight Mile Style is not owned by Eminem himself, it holds the copyrights to the songs in question.

According to the complaint, despite the lack of proper licensing, Eight Mile’s copyrighted works have been copied and synchronized with visual content in millions of videos on Meta’s platforms, collectively garnering billions of views. Eight Mile’s attorneys stated in the filing: “Meta’s years-long and ongoing infringement of Eight Mile’s catalog represents yet another example of a trillion-dollar company exploiting the creative works of music artists—without permission and in blatant disregard of the rights of copyright owners—for the financial gain of its executives and shareholders.”

As of now, Meta Platforms has not publicly responded to the lawsuit. The complaint acknowledges that in response to the broader issue of users uploading unlicensed music, social media companies including Meta have created licensed music libraries to allow lawful use of music in videos and other content. However, Eight Mile claims that Meta never obtained licenses for Eminem’s songs owned by Eight Mile, and that Meta was fully aware of this.

In late 2020, Meta reached an agreement with Audiam, a digital royalty collection agency, regarding its music library. The complaint asserts: “Despite Audiam having no authority to license works on behalf of Eight Mile Style, Meta attempted to include Eight Mile Style’s catalog in its initial licensing agreement with Audiam, but failed. Meta knew that neither Audiam nor Eight Mile Style had authorized such licensing discussions, and that the agreement with Audiam did not cover Eight Mile Style’s works.”

The filing further alleges that after Eight Mile notified Meta of the issue, the company removed some tracks from its music library, including the iconic hit “Lose Yourself.” However, as of the date of filing, alternate versions such as “Lose Yourself (In the Style of Eminem)” (karaoke version), “Lose Yourself (Piano Version),” and a cover by artist URock remained accessible on the platform.

Eight Mile is seeking damages including loss in copyright value, lost publishing profits, and the profits Meta gained from the alleged infringement. Alternatively, it is requesting statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work for each of the 243 songs, across the three platforms—a total that could reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Notably, this lawsuit comes less than a year after a years-long copyright suit filed by Eight Mile against Spotify was dismissed by a federal court in Tennessee. In that case, the judge ruled that while Eight Mile held valid copyrights, its attempt to leverage ambiguity around Eminem’s catalog for monetary gain constituted an abuse of legal process.