Band and their label sued restaurant’s parent company in 2024 over social media ads using 1994 hit without permission
Beastie Boys and Universal Music Group have settled their lawsuits against the parent company of Chili’s that claimed the restaurant used the group’s “Sabotage” in social media ads without permission.
In July 2024, the band and their label sued Brinker International over the ads that first started appearing in November 2022. In addition to using the song without permission, the complaint claimed, one of the ads also resembled the song’s famed Spike Jonez-directed music video, complete with “three characters wearing obvious 70s-style wigs, fake mustaches, and sunglasses who were intended to evoke the three members of Beastie Boys.”
“Use of the ‘Sabotage’ sound recording, music composition and video was all without permission,” the lawsuit said. “The plaintiffs do not license ‘Sabotage’ or any of their other intellectual property for third-party product advertising purposes, and deceased Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch included a provision in his will prohibiting such uses.”
Beastie Boys and UMG sought at least $150,000 in damages from Brinker. On Wednesday, lawyers for both sides filed briefs to the federal court notifying it that they reached a settlement “in principle” following mediation, Billboard reports. Terms of the agreement were not revealed.
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Beastie Boys have been fiercely protective of their music following Yauch’s death in 2012, as one of the provisions in his will aimed to block the use of the trio’s music in advertising.
Back in 2014, the band won a $1.7 million verdict against the Monster Energy drink company for using several of the group’s songs in a promotional video. That same year, Beastie Boys reached an undisclosed settlement with toy company GoldieBlox over the use of their song “Girls.”
