Supreme Court holds UCL and CLRA claims survive SLAPP challenge: Serova v. Sony Music Entertainment

Last Thursday, August 18, 2022, the Supreme Court held that commercial sellers may not misrepresent the authorship of artistic works.  Accordingly, the Court determined, the trial court had improperly granted the defendant's anti-SLAPP motion in an action involving disputed representations that Michael Jackson was the vocalist on three tracks included in a posthumously-issued album.  Serova v. Sony Music Entertainment, ___ Cal.5th ___ (Aug. 18, 2022).

The unanimous opinion concludes:

Serova has sufficiently demonstrated, for purposes of the anti-SLAPP proceedings before us, that her CLRA and UCL claims related to [the album]'s packaging and promotional video have sufficient merit.  Perhaps in another context the First Amendment would limit the reach of our consumer protection laws, but Sony’s album-back promise and video are commercial advertising making claims about a product, and we will not place them beyond the reach of state regulation. 

Slip op. at 43.  Both the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times covered the opinion. This blog's prior coverage of the case is here and here.