Aussies who signed up to Tidal because they thought it was the only place they could hear Kanye West‘s new album The Life Of Pablo can totally sue Yeezy for their money back.
That’s according to an Australian lawyer who’s weighed in on the class-action lawsuit against Ye and Tidal that’s just been filed by a pissed off fan in the United States.
https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/699376240709402624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
ICYMI: Kanye originally tweeted that TLOP would be a Tidal exclusive, something which turned out to be total BS, but not before Tidal tripled its subscribers.
And now Michael Bradley, managing partner of Marque lawyers, has told triple j that it’s a “basic case of deception” and any Aussie who can establish that they joined the streaming service just to access Kanye’s album will be entitled to their money back.
According to Bradley, the most likely scenario is for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to get involved.
“They’d be looking to get everyone out of their Tidal contracts and get their money back,” he said. “The ACCC would say these guys [Tidal] have breached Australian Consumer law in a number of ways, including misrepresentation [Kanye fibbing about where he was releasing his album] and unfair contracts.”
The legal eagle has also taken a gander at Tidal’s T&C’s and reckons one of the conditions that states that people outside the European Union aren’t entitled to refunds won’t cut it here in Australia, and constitutes an unfair contract under our law.
So, on top of getting subscribers’ money back, old mate says “the ACCC could prosecute for these breaches of law and pursue financial penalties which could be in the millions”.
However, Aussies won’t be able to claim any of the potential damages awarded in the US lawsuit.
Either way, the news doesn’t bode well for Yeezy, who’s already supposedly $53 million in debt.
https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/698699904303132672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Meanwhile, over in the US, the lawyer spearheading the class action lawsuit has also spoken out, telling the js that Kanye’s bogus tweet about TLOP‘s exclusivity amounts to “straight fraud” (wonder if the same goes for his claim about it being the greatest album of all time).
“He knew it wasn’t true, he knew his fans were going to rely on it and we think it actually boosted the valuation of his company to the tune of over $60 million,” lawyer Jay Edelson said, adding that Kanye’s reputaysh for coming out with bizarre and unreliable claims- such as announcing a 2020 presidential run and unveiling four different names for his new album – won’t fly as a defence in court.
“What we’re going to demonstrate through this lawsuit is that there are two Kanyes,” he said. “There is Kanye the entertainer who likes to say provocative things, but then there is Kanye the businessman who understands how to motivate his fans.”
Hear that? THERE REALLY ARE TWO KANYES YOU GUYS!
