No court has found that billions of Drake’s Spotify streams were fraudulent. The claim came from a proposed class action filed by musician Eric Dwayne Collins, known as RBX, against Spotify entities. Drake was cited as an example in the complaint, not sued or accused of wrongdoing. The latest reported development is that a judge dismissed Collins’s claims on June 23, 2026, while allowing him to amend the complaint.
What the Spotify lawsuit alleged
Collins filed the proposed class action in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on November 2, 2025. The complaint alleged negligence and a violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law, and proposed a nationwide class with a California subclass.
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It alleged that roughly 37 billion Spotify streams of Drake’s music between January 2022 and September 2025 included a substantial percentage of inauthentic plays from a network of bot accounts. That figure and the claim about fake streams came from the plaintiff’s complaint, which described its analysis as based on information and belief. They were not independently validated findings or a court determination.
Examples cited in the complaint
The filing pointed to patterns it characterized as suspicious, including:
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- At least 250,000 plays of “No Face” over four days in 2024 that allegedly originated in Turkey but appeared in the United Kingdom, which the complaint attributed to VPN use.
- More than 100 million streams allegedly coming from areas with no residential addresses.
- Nearly 10% of Drake streams allegedly linked to accounts whose location data implied travel of at least 15,000 kilometers in a month, including implausible changes between consecutive plays.
- Accounts allegedly playing Drake’s music for as much as 23 hours a day, as well as long-running stream patterns the complaint said did not resemble the usual post-release decline.
These are allegations, not verified facts about Drake’s audience or Spotify’s records. The complaint did not accuse Drake or his team of arranging bots, and Drake was not a defendant.
How the complaint says fake streams could affect royalties
Collins’s financial theory was that Spotify allocates a revenue pool proportionally according to each rights holder’s share of total streams. If artificial plays inflate one act’s share, the plaintiff argued, other rights holders receive a smaller proportional share of that pool.
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The complaint estimated that the alleged diversion could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. That was the plaintiff’s estimate—not a court-calculated loss, an award, or a finding about Spotify’s liability. The claimed harm depends on the complaint’s account of royalty allocation and on its allegations about the volume of fake streams.
What Spotify said
Spotify said it could not comment on pending litigation and denied benefiting from artificial streaming. A spokesperson said the company invests in systems to remove fake streams, withhold royalties, and charge penalties.
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Spotify also cited a separate case involving an alleged $10 million streaming fraud across services, saying $60,000 of it came from Spotify. Those figures and statements describe Spotify’s account of a different case; they do not establish what happened in Collins’s lawsuit or resolve his allegations.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What happened to the lawsuit
On June 23, 2026, Music Business Worldwide reported that the judge dismissed both of Collins’s claims. The judge reportedly found that Collins had not adequately alleged a legal duty requiring Spotify to protect him from third-party bots, and had not plausibly alleged that his harm outweighed Spotify’s justifications for its policies.
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The judge reportedly granted Collins leave to amend, meaning he was allowed to try to revise the complaint. This is the latest reported status available here; later filings or rulings have not been verified. The reported dismissal is not a finding that Drake’s streams were fraudulent, nor a ruling that Spotify was liable.
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What the case does—and does not—establish
- It does establish the nature of the dispute: RBX alleged that Spotify failed to prevent artificial streaming and that this harmed other rights holders.
- It does not establish the Drake-specific numbers: the stream totals, geographic patterns, and dollar estimate remain claims in the complaint, not confirmed findings.
- It does not accuse Drake of fraud: he was used as an example and was not sued in this case.
- It does not establish Spotify’s liability: Spotify disputed the premise that it benefits from fake streams, and the judge reportedly dismissed both claims at this stage.
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