The Kroger Co. and LG Electronics U.S.A. have each been sued for allegedly using the TikTok song Cheese Tax in promotional videos without a license.
The two lawsuits were filed by Georgia-based musician Matthew Michael Hobbs, known as Matt Hobbs. He is the creator of Puppy Songs, which the complaints describe as “a collection of nearly 200 original songs that tell stories about life with a dog.”
Hobbs filed both complaints in federal court in Los Angeles on Monday (October 19).
The complaint against Kroger can be read in full here, and the complaint against LG here, in copies obtained by MBW.
Each lawsuit claims that the company posted a video featuring Cheese Tax to its corporate TikTok account in March 2023, within a month of the song first being published.
Each complaint seeks damages set by law of up to USD $150,000 per infringed work, as well as a court order permanently barring the company from infringing Hobbs‘ rights.
The suit against LG goes further, alleging that the electronics company presented the song on TikTok as its own “original sound.”
According to the filings, Hobbs first published Cheese Tax on February 28, 2023, as an “original sound” on his @puppysongs TikTok profile.
Hobbs‘ complaints call the track a “global mega-hit” and state that it “was used in tens of thousands of user-created posts because of its popularity.”
He says he has recently worked with brands including BarkBox, Purina, Petco, DoorDash, and Earth Rated.
The Kroger complaint adds that Hobbs has “commercially licensed the Works to brands in exchange for license fees through separately negotiated agreements.”
Businesses on TikTok can pick tracks from the platform’s Commercial Music Library, which the complaints say corporations can use “without obtaining additional licenses from rightsholders.”
Hobbs says Cheese Tax has never been included in that library.
“While TikTok provides its Commercial Music Library for users to select from, corporations often bypass proper licensing arrangements by using unlicensed copyrighted audio in their commercial videos.”
Matthew Michael Hobbs‘ complaint
“While TikTok provides its Commercial Music Library for users to select from, corporations often bypass proper licensing arrangements by using unlicensed copyrighted audio in their commercial videos,” both complaints state.
The suits follow a string of similar cases brought by the major labels against brands over social media posts. Kroger itself was sued by Sony Music Entertainment in August over at least 392 alleged unauthorized uses of Sony recordings in social media ads.
Hobbs‘ complaint describes Kroger as “one of the largest supermarket operators in the United States.”
It says Kroger posted a video using Cheese Tax as its audio on its @kroger TikTok account, and that the video was viewed at least 6,231 times.
“Rather than select a Commercial Sound from TikTok‘s Commercial Music Library or obtain a license from Plaintiff,” the complaint states, “Defendant, a Commercial User, used an Original Sound uploaded by another user, which TikTok’s Music Terms of Service expressly prohibit.
“Defendant posted the Video on March 10, 2023, just ten days after the Works were first published and while the Works were rapidly gaining viral popularity on TikTok, in order to capitalize on that popularity for Defendant’s commercial benefit.”
The complaint says that to use the song in this way, Kroger “would have needed both a synchronization license for the musical composition and a master use license for the sound recording.”
Hobbs says he discovered the video on or about December 2, 2025, and that on March 11, 2026, his representatives sent Kroger written notice demanding that it stop using the song.
“In response, Defendant asserted that the Works were available for use by TikTok business account holders at the time Defendant posted the Video,” the complaint says. “That assertion is false.
“The Works were not, at any time, included in TikTok‘s Commercial Music Library.”
Kroger removed the video on or about April 23, 2026, the filing states.
“Prior to its removal, the Video remained publicly available on Defendant’s commercial TikTok page for more than three years,” the complaint states, “during which time Defendant publicly displayed and performed the Works for its commercial benefit without any license or authorization from Plaintiff.
“Each day the Video remained publicly available on Defendant’s commercial TikTok page constituted a separate act of infringement, including acts of infringement occurring within the three years preceding the filing of this Complaint.”
That “separate act” argument matters because the Copyright Act generally gives plaintiffs three years to bring a claim, and Kroger‘s video went up more than three and a half years before Hobbs sued.
The complaint also says Hobbs didn’t know, and had no reason to know, about the video before December 2025. That sets up a second argument: federal appeals courts, including the Ninth Circuit, which covers California, generally start the three-year clock when an infringement is discovered, or reasonably should have been.
Kroger has not compensated Hobbs for its use of the song, the complaint adds.
The second lawsuit, against LG, centers on a video posted to the company’s verified @lgusa TikTok account on March 21, 2023.
The LG complaint describes the clip as showing “a dog at an open refrigerator,” set to Cheese Tax.
The lawsuit alleges that LG did not make the video, which it says carried a TikTok watermark identifying the user @vito.the.boxer.
It claims LG downloaded that user’s video and uploaded it to its own account as a new post, rather than choosing a track from the Commercial Music Library or licensing the song.
“Whatever permission, if any, Defendant obtained from @vito.the.boxer did not and could not extend to the Works,” the complaint contends. “The user @vito.the.boxer does not own the Works and has no right to license the Works to anyone, and Plaintiff has never authorized @vito.the.boxer or Defendant to use the Works for any commercial purpose.”
The filing says the video received at least 2,938 views, 84 likes, 11 comments, 5 saves, and 1 share.
The LG complaint also claims the company falsified the song’s credit on TikTok.
“The audio for the Infringing Video was identified publicly by Defendant falsely as Defendant’s original sound, and the sound icon displayed with the Infringing Video bears Defendant’s LG logo, despite the fact that the sound is not Defendant’s TikTok Original Sound, and was instead Plaintiff’s Works,” the filing alleges.
That alleged conduct forms the basis of two additional claims against LG under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
As the complaint sets out, the DMCA prohibits falsifying, removing, or altering the details that identify a work and its author when the person doing so knows it will help enable or conceal infringement.
The complaint alleges that LG “desired for more TikTok users to use the falsely designated sound to increase Defendant’s commercial exposure on TikTok.”
According to the complaint, Hobbs discovered the video on April 8, 2026, and contacted LG on or about April 20. LG removed it on or about April 24.
“Because Defendant falsely identified the Works as Defendant’s own ‘original sound,’ the Infringing Video did not appear among the videos linked to Plaintiff’s sound page for the Works and did not identify Plaintiff or the Works, which concealed the Infringing Video from Plaintiff,” the LG complaint argues, as its answer to the same three-year problem.
Hobbs does not specify a total damages figure in either complaint. Each lawsuit brings separate copyright claims over the Cheese Tax recording and its underlying composition, and both argue the infringement was willful.
The $150,000 per-work ceiling applies only to willful infringement; otherwise, the cap is $30,000 per work.
If a court found the infringement willful and treated the recording and the composition as two separate works, the maximum for the copyright claims would be $300,000 per company, before legal fees.
Alternatively, Hobbs can pursue his actual losses plus any profits each company made from the alleged infringement. Both complaints also ask the court to order each company to pay his legal fees.
The DMCA claims against LG seek separate damages set by law of between $2,500 and $25,000 for each violation.
The LG complaint counts each distribution, public performance, and public display of the video with the false credit as a separate violation.
MBW has contacted Kroger and LG for comment.Music Business Worldwide
