Despite all of MTN Nigeria's struggles it has still maintained its position as Nigeria's largest network and seems to make it everyone's favorite target.
Telecom giant to face fresh N16B lawsuit from COSON
COSON claims to have repeatedly asked MTN to obtain the appropriate licenses and pay requisite royalities for the musical works and sound recordings deployed by the company.
A customer leaves an MTN shop in Johannesburg April 10, 2012. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
Just fresh off the heels of the $1.7 billion settlement with the NCC, MTN Nigeria is already facing another lawsuit, this time to the tune of N16 billion from the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON).
According to an ITPulse report, "In a motion filed on June 20, 2016 at the Federal High Court, Lagos by a foremost Intellectual Property lawyer, Mr. Justin Ige, COSON asked the court for six different declarations of copyright infringement allegedly perpetrated by MTN in the MTN Friendship’, ‘Connect’ or ‘Walk In’ Centres across Nigeria; the MTN ‘Road Shows’ in Nigeria; the various MTN Music Concerts, Festivals, Award Shows, Product Activations and Corporate events; the MTN Callertunez platform; the MTN Music Plus platform and the MTN Mobile Radio."
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Another report says COSON claims to have repeatedly asked MTN to obtain the appropriate licenses and pay requisite royalities for the musical works and sound recordings deployed by the company. However, MTN allegedly refused to oblige.
According to COSON, Techpoint reports, MTN holds back a staggering 60-70% of the revenue made from CRBTs to itself, leaving the remaining 30-40% for record labels, VAS providers and then artistes to fight for the rest of the pie.
Apart from CRBTs, COSON is also suing MTN for copyright infringements in music concerts, product activations, music downloads, and award shows.
The regulator has even gone on to ask for an injunction restraining MTN and its agentsnfrom the continued infringement of the copyright in the musical works belonging to members of the society.
There is no official statement yet from MTN regarding the lawsuit and the accompanying allegations.
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