The Court Of Appeal has upheld the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s earlier decision in August 2025 to strike out the case between Blur’s Dave Rowntree and PRS.
The legal claim by Rowntree, on behalf of PRS members, related to the distribution of ‘black box’ royalties – those collected by PRS which cannot be matched with the correct songwriter or publisher because of inaccurate or insufficient information.
The case against PRS was effectively seeking a redistribution of these black box royalties away from publisher members to songwriter members. The class action claimed that the current system was depriving members of up to £200m in unpaid royalties.
Following the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) finding in favour of PRS in August 2025, Lord Justice Miles found that the Competition Appeal Tribunal did not err in law when it struck out and refused to certify the claim over the method used to distribute royalties.
It would have resulted in PRS members suing the society they collectively own, despite there being soaring costs attached and no logical basis for doing so
PRS spokesperson
The Court of Appeal has now ruled that “there is nothing inherently unfair about the pro rata distribution” of unallocated royalties, recognising that the system operates with incomplete information.
A PRS For Music spokesperson said: “The Court of Appeal has once again recognised that this claim has no reasonable prospect of success and has upheld the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s earlier decision to strike it out, vindicating our longstanding position that this claim was never in the interests of PRS members.
“This class action was fundamentally flawed, and was a complete misrepresentation of our policies from the outset. It would have resulted in PRS members suing the society they collectively own, despite there being soaring costs attached and no logical basis for doing so.
“We welcome the decision and look forward to continuing to focus on our main priority which has always been, and remains, delivering value for our members and protecting their rights wherever and whenever their music is used.”
There must be better ways for royalties to be identified and paid to the correct songwriter, especially given the pace at which technology is evolving
Dave Rowntree
In a statement, David Rowntree said: “This legal action has succeeded in shining a light on the magnitude of PRS black box royalties, which the Court accepted amounted to £200m over the period in issue. This represents a significant proportion of the total royalties collected by the PRS.
"I think this figure is far too high, especially since I believe this money belongs overwhelmingly to individual writers rather than publishers. I would welcome the opportunity to work with the PRS to find ways to shrink the value of black box royalties for the benefit of its 160,000 songwriter members. There must be better ways for royalties to be identified and paid to the correct songwriter, especially given the pace at which technology is evolving."
He added: "I would like to thank the songwriters who have written to me to express their support for this legal action, which at its heart has always been a call for greater transparency and fairness.
"The outcome of the appeal is not what I had hoped for, but of course I accept the decision of the Court of Appeal that this complaint could not be dealt with as a question of competition law.”
