Sony Music Entertainment and Designer Brands, the parent company of DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse, have reached a settlement in principle in Sony‘s copyright infringement lawsuit over music used in social media advertising.
The two sides disclosed the agreement in a notice filed on Monday (August 17) in the US District Court for the Central District of California.
Financial terms were not disclosed in the filing, and the agreement between Sony and the retailer has yet to be executed.
The parties told the court they had reached a settlement in principle “subject to the negotiation and execution of a mutually acceptable settlement agreement”, according to the filing, which you can read here.
They also asked the court to take the hearings and conference scheduled for August 18 and August 25 off calendar, and to continue all dates and deadlines in the case by 30 days.
The notice was signed by Cynthia S. Arato of Shapiro Arato Bach for the plaintiffs and Jeff M. Barron of Barnes & Thornburg for the defendants.
Alongside SME, the plaintiffs are Sony Music Entertainment US Latin, Arista Music, Arista Records, Ultra Records, Zomba Recording, Records Label LLC, and LaFace Records.
The defendants are Designer Brands Inc., DSW Shoe Warehouse, Inc., and footwear brand Topo Athletic LLC.
Sony sued the retailer in August 2025 over what it called “rampant infringement” of its sound recordings in social media ads.
The company said it did “not yet know the full scope of DSW‘s infringement”, but that “at a minimum” the retailer and its influencers had used 122 Sony recordings in more than 170 video promotions without a license.
Recordings named in that complaint included Crazy in Love by Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Paint The Town Red by Doja Cat, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by Eurythmics, and All I Want for Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey.
“DSW has decades of experience licensing music to promote its businesses and previously licensed sound recordings from SME for this very purpose,” the complaint stated.
DSW and its affiliates had moved first against Sony.
In July 2025, DSW, Designer Brands, and Topo Athletic filed a declaratory judgment complaint in Ohio naming SME, Sony Music Publishing, UMG Recordings, Universal Music Publishing, and BMG Rights Management.
They asked the court to rule that their posts did not infringe, arguing the music was covered by licensing agreements between the labels and platforms including Instagram and TikTok.
Earlier in August, Judge Michael H. Watson of the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio granted Sony Music’s motion to dismiss, finding the complaint against them was an “anticipatory filing”.
The three companies’ claims against Universal, and BMG remain before that court, as does a separate infringement suit filed against Designer Brands by Warner Music Group affiliates on May 1, 2025, over more than 200 recordings and compositions.
Four days after the settlement notice, Sony filed against another US retailer in the same California court.
On Friday (August 21), SME and nine affiliated labels sued The Kroger Co. and 18 current and former affiliates, in a complaint reviewed by MBW.
The suit identifies at least 392 unauthorized uses of Sony recordings across accounts run by Kroger brands including Ralphs, Mariano’s, Harris Teeter, Fred Meyer Jewelers, Murray’s Cheese, Home Chef and Ruler Foods.
Among the 18 is Vitacost.com, Inc., named as a defendant in its own right – the e-commerce health and wellness retailer Kroger acquired in August 2014 and sold to iHerb in January 2026.
Sony groups the company with the other defendants it calls the “Kroger Parties”, and says the videos it attributes to Vitacost were each posted while the business was a wholly owned subsidiary of The Kroger Co.
The complaint says some of those posts were still viewable when it was filed, more than seven months after the iHerb sale closed.
“This action is to stop the Kroger Parties’ rampant infringement of Sony Music‘s sound recording copyrights in advertisements posted to the Kroger Parties’ social media accounts and through ‘influencers’ whom the Kroger Parties pay to promote their products and brands, and to recover damages,” the complaint states.
Sony says it first put Kroger on notice on June 30, 2025, and that new infringing content was posted as recently as August 12, 2026.
It also alleges that Kroger refused to enter into a tolling agreement that would have allowed settlement talks without prejudicing either side.
“The Kroger Parties’ continued infringing conduct, combined with their persistent refusal to agree to a tolling arrangement, left Sony Music with no choice but to file this action to protect its rights,” the complaint says.
Among the recordings cited are Hey Ya! by Outkast and All I Want for Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey, each used at least 12 times, according to Sony.
One allegation centers on a license Sony granted for The Lovin’ Spoonful‘s Do You Believe in Magic in Kroger’s 2020 holiday campaign.
The complaint describes it as a seven-week license running from November 13 to December 31, 2020, and claims seven Kroger-affiliated brands – City Market, Baker’s, Dillons, King Soopers, Fry’s Food Stores, Pick ‘n Save and Ralphs – left versions of the campaign video publicly viewable after that license expired.
The complaint says Kroger entered into at least 14 licenses with Sony Music between 2017 and 2025, and cites the company’s own disclosure that its advertising costs totaled approximately USD $1.18 billion in fiscal 2025.
Sony is seeking statutory damages of up to USD $150,000 per infringed work.
The two cases sit within a wider campaign Sony Music has run against companies that use its recordings in social media marketing without a license.
In 2024, the major settled a suit against Marriott International, in which its lawyers had identified 931 instances of unauthorized use across hotels the chain owns, manages or franchises.
In March 2026, Sony settled with the University of Southern California over 283 posts on the school’s athletics accounts that allegedly featured 170 Sony-owned songs.
Earlier actions include a 2021 suit against fitness apparel brand Gymshark covering 297 recordings, settled out of court in 2022, and a suit against cosmetics brand OFRA.
Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group have brought comparable claims against companies including Chili’s owner Brinker International, cookie chain Crumbl, PacSun and Quince.
The Kroger complaint restates the argument running through all of them.
“It is no accident that the Videos use some of the most popular sound recordings in Sony Music‘s catalog,” it says.Music Business Worldwide
