Court of Appeal dismisses Rowntree PRS royalty case

The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Blur drummer and songwriter Dave Rowntree, ending his proposed class action lawsuit against the royalty collection society PRS for Music over the distribution of so-called "black box" royalties. The ruling, handed down on Monday, June 29, 2026, upholds an earlier decision by the Competition Appeal Tribunal to strike out the claim.

Rowntree had sought to bring the case on behalf of approximately 160,000 songwriter members of PRS, arguing that the society's system for distributing unidentified royalties was systematically biased against them. These "black box" royalties are sums collected by PRS but which cannot be matched to the correct songwriter or publisher due to missing or inaccurate data. PRS distributes these funds to its writer and publisher members in the same proportions as identified royalties, a method known as pro rata distribution.

Rowntree's central claim was that this approach unfairly favors publishers because, in aggregate, a greater share of the unidentified royalties is likely attributable to songwriters. He argued the system was potentially depriving songwriters of up to 200 million pounds.