On October 9, 2026, ECBAWM filed a lawsuit on behalf of Warner Music Group (WMG), one of the world’s largest music entertainment companies, against global eyewear developer EssilorLuxottica and its affiliated companies (“Luxottica”). Luxottica is one of the largest developers, manufacturers, and retailers of eyewear in the world, owning over 150 major eyewear brands, including Ray-Ban, Oakley, Costa Del Mar, Oliver Peoples, and Sunglass Hut. The Complaint, filed in the Southern District of New York, alleges that Luxottica’s brands repeatedly featured musical works owned by or exclusively licensed to WMG without seeking permission or paying a licensing fee. The Complaint further alleges that Luxottica deliberately ignored warnings from Instagram, Meta, TikTok, and YouTube alerting users that copyrighted music could not be used in posts without first obtaining a license.

The Complaint alleges that Luxottica misappropriated at least 427 of WMG’s copyrighted works in an effort to increase revenues, including songs written and performed by award-winning artists and songwriters such as Miley Cyrus, Led Zeppelin, Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande, Bruno Mars, Charli xcx, and Fleetwood Mac. The Luxottica brands’ social media influence is wide reaching: amassing 36.14 million followers across all platforms. Luxottica brands regularly employ a social media marketing strategy using WMG copyrighted music, where the audio track plays as an “essential and inseparable component” of Luxottica’s social media videos. In so doing, Luxottica drives sales and builds brand profiles without paying any compensation to WMG.

As alleged in the Complaint, Luxottica’s use of WMG’s copyrighted works not only violates federal copyright law, but by including these works in its brands’ videos without WMG’s consent, Luxottica deprived WMG and its artists and songwriters of the ability to control how and where their art is used.

The Plaintiffs in this case are represented by ECBAWM attorneys Zoe Salzman, Maggie Turner, and Sydney Zazarro.