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Spotify Accused of Allowing Billions in Fraudulent Drake Streams
3 Nov
Summary
- New lawsuit alleges Spotify ignored "mass-scale fraudulent streaming"
- Drake accused of benefiting from billions of fake Spotify streams
- Lawsuit claims Spotify prioritized user growth over combating fraud
In a new class action lawsuit filed in California District Court, Spotify is accused of "turning a blind eye" to "mass-scale fraudulent streaming" on its platform. The lawsuit, which names rapper RBX as the lead plaintiff, alleges that one artist in particular has been the beneficiary of these fake streams: Drake.
The lawsuit claims that a "substantial, non-trivial percentage" of Drake's approximately 37 billion streams were "inauthentic and appeared to be the work of a sprawling network of Bot Accounts." This allegedly fraudulent activity took place between January 2022 and September 2025, with the lawsuit citing evidence of abnormal VPN usage and streams originating from areas with "zero residential addresses."
The lawsuit further alleges that Spotify "deliberately turns a blind eye to fraudulent streaming" for its own benefit, as more users and streams mean more advertising dollars. It suggests that Spotify's measures to combat streaming fraud have been ineffective, and that the company is particularly vulnerable to bots on its ad-supported free tier.
The lawsuit is seeking over $5 million in damages and asks a federal judge to certify it as a class action, order Spotify to identify alleged victims, and oversee a jury trial seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
