The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has agreed to pay $1.75 million and reform its licensing practices to settle allegations that it violated a court-ordered consent decree designed to prevent anticompetitive effects arising from its collective licensing of music performance rights.

According to the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, ASCAP entered into approximately 150 contracts with songwriter and publisher members that made ASCAP the exclusive licensor of their performance rights, despite provisions in the consent decree prohibiting such actions. The department’s investigation also revealed a conflict in the interests of the music publishers that serve on ASCAP’s board of directors.

‘By blocking members’ ability to license their songs themselves, ASCAP undermined a critical protection of competition contained in the consent decree,’ said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Renata B. Hesse, head of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. ‘The Supreme Court said that ASCAP’s consent decree is supposed to provide music users with a ‘real choice’ in how they can access the millions of songs in ASCAP’s repertory – through ASCAP’s blanket license or through direct negotiations with individual songwriters and publishers.’

ASCAP is a performing rights organization that licenses public performance rights in compositions held by its hundreds of thousands of songwriter and publisher members. Since 1941, when the United States originally brought a civil antitrust lawsuit against ASCAP for price fixing, ASCAP has been subject to a consent decree, amended twice since then, that imposes a number of restrictions on ASCAP designed to prevent its anticompetitive exercise of market power.

As part of the proposed settlement, ASCAP has agreed to cease publisher board members’ involvement in ASCAP’s licensing activities and to adopt an improved compliance program to minimize the likelihood of future consent decree violations. The settlement also restores the ‘real choice’ that music users are supposed to have in accessing the millions of songs in ASCAP’s repertory.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Renata B. Hesse stated, ‘Today’s settlement restores that choice and thereby promotes competition among the songwriters, the publishers and ASCAP. This settlement also sends an important message to ASCAP and others subject to antitrust consent decrees that they must abide by the terms of the decrees or face significant consequences.’

ASCAP’s consent decree has been a subject of controversy for years, and this settlement marks a significant step towards restoring the competition that the consent decree was designed to protect. The proposed settlement is subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.