The Beastie Boys have filed a lawsuit against the parent company of Chili’s, claiming the restaurant chain used the group’s 1994 song “Sabotage” without “permission or consent.”
According to the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in the Southern District of New York, the Grammy-winning hip-hop group alleges Brinker International used “significant portions of the musical composition and sound recording” of the song in videos promoting the casual-dining chain on social media.
By doing so, the company led the public to believe the influential, genre-bending trio “sponsored, endorsed and [were] associated with” the promotion of Chili’s restaurants and products.
The videos, which ran on social media platforms in November 2022, featured three characters wearing “obvious 70s-style wigs, fake mustaches, and sunglasses” in an obvious attempt to “evoke in the minds of the public” shots from the Spike Jonze-directed music video for “Sabotage.”
The copyright infringement suit was filed by the two surviving members of the trio, Michael Diamond and Adam Horowitz, and the widow of the late Adam Yauch.
The unauthorized use of “Sabotage” has caused and will cause “irreparable harm” to Diamond and Horowitz. Yauch, who died of cancer in 2012 at the age of 47, will never be able to be fully compensated, according to the suit.
“The plaintiffs do not license ‘Sabotage’ or any of their other intellectual property for third-party product advertising purposes,” the complaint states, adding that a provision included in Yauch’s will also prohibits such uses.
The group is asking the court for at least $150,000 in damages and a permanent injunction order to block Brinker International from using their work.
In 2019, a Manhattan jury awarded the group $1.7 million in a copyright infringement lawsuit against Monster Energy Drinks. The group argued the company had no authorization to use five of the band’s songs — including “Sabotage” — in a video shared on social media platforms after the death of Yauch.
