Last month, Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit filed a lawsuit against Universal Music Group in Los Angeles federal court, seeking $200 million from the label, claiming that he allegedly had not “seen a dime in royalties” in years and that this was allegedly happening to several other artists with what he calls “systemic” and “fraudulent” policies. Universal Music Group is now responding to Durst’s lawsuit, describing his allegations against the company as “fiction”. Universal Music Group is requesting that this lawsuit against them be thrown out of court.

Retold by Billboard, in a response from Universal Music Group, issued on Friday, attorneys for the label said Durst’s lawsuit must be dismissed as it is “based on a fallacy”. Rollin A. Ranson, an attorney representing Universal Music Group under the law firm Sidley Austin stated “Plaintiffs’ entire narrative that UMG tried to conceal royalties is a fiction.” He continues with “Plaintiffs’ complaint fails as a matter of law and should be dismissed with prejudice.”

Billboard also reports that according to attorneys representing Universal Music Group, the documents included in Durst’s lawsuit “eviscerate” his allegations. The attorneys go on to cite emails sent to Durst from Universal Music Group executives trying to get royalties to the band, but the band’s own business manager was the one allegedly slowing the process.

In Friday’s filing, Universal Music Group writes: “Over a year before plaintiffs’ ‘discovery’ of allegedly ‘concealed’ royalties, UMG affirmatively and unilaterally reached out to Limp Bizkit’s representative so that it could begin making royalty payments to the band, and was instead informed by him that all members of Limp Bizkit but one (including plaintiff Durst) had assigned their royalty shares to others, and were therefore not entitled to any royalty payments from UMG.”

On Monday, a lawyer for Durst, Mark Fabiani,  issued a statement to Billboard regarding the matter. They stated: “When someone is caught red handed, their first response is often to hire very expensive outside law firms who first, as a matter of course, try anything to dismiss the suit when they are in trouble with the facts. In this case, we believe UMG is using a typical, formulaic, well-trodden strategy of reaching for any escape route by desperately grasping at technicalities.”

Durst himself has also responded to Universal Music Group’s response by describing their answer as an “appalling and upsetting” scheme to keep royalties from the hands of artists and instead keep the profits from artist’s works for themselves. Billboard explains that he went on to claim that Universal Music Group allegedly kept Limp Bizkit “in the red with shady bookkeeping” which allegedly allowed for Universal Music Group to allegedly falsely claim that the band’s royalties remained unrecouped. 

Only time will tell where this suit between Limp Bizkit and Universal Music Group ends up.