X Corp, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, has sued 18 major music publishers and a leading U.S. music industry trade group, alleging they conspired to block competition and force the platform to buy music licenses at inflated prices. The lawsuit, filed on Friday in a federal district court in Texas, accuses the National Music Publishers’ Association along with major publishers including Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Chappell of violating U.S. antitrust law. X alleges the publishers collectively refused to negotiate individual licensing agreements, instead pushing industrywide terms that the company says are anti-competitive. “X has been denied the ability to acquire a U.S. musical-composition license from any individual music publisher on competitive terms,” the complaint said. David Israelite, president and CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association, rejected the claims, saying X is the only major social media platform that does not properly license music. “We allege that X has engaged in copyright infringement for years, and its meritless lawsuit is a bad faith effort to distract from publishers’ and songwriters’ legitimate right to enforce against X’s illegal use of their songs,” he said in a statement. Sony Music referred Reuters to the association’s response and declined further comment. Universal Music and Warner Chappell did not immediately respond to requests for comment. X also did not respond to a request for comment. According to the lawsuit, publishers representing more than 90% of U.S. copyrighted music coordinated their actions through the trade group. X said the publishers have issued thousands of takedown notices each week, targeting posts that contain copyrighted music — including those from high-profile accounts — in an effort to pressure the platform into accepting collective licensing terms. X said it has removed thousands of posts and suspended more than 50,000 users as a result, hurting its user engagement and advertising revenue. The company is asking the court to restore what it calls competitive conditions in music licensing and to award damages for lost ad revenue. The case follows earlier legal battles between X and music publishers. In 2024, X won dismissal of most claims in a lawsuit filed in 2023 by 17 publishers, including Sony and Universal, who accused the platform of infringing copyrights on nearly 1,700 songs and sought more than $250 million in damages. X said in Friday’s filing that some of the publishers involved in past litigation have been willing to negotiate individual settlements.