On Thursday, Apple Corps, the company that looks after the
rights of the former Beatles, filed suit in the High Court in
London and the Supreme Court in New York, after an audit of the
record label's accounts allegedly found discrepancies.
"We have tried to reach a settlement through good faith
negotiations and regret that our efforts have been in vain,” said
Neil Aspinall, CEO of Apple Corps and the band’s former road
manager. "Despite very clear provisions in our contracts, EMI
persist in ignoring their obligations and duty to account fairly
and with transparency.
"Apple and the Beatles are, once again, left with no choice but
to sue EMI," he added, according to reports.
An EMI spokeswoman told Reuters, "Artists do sometimes request
an audit of their record label's accounts, that's not unusual, but
sometimes there are differences of opinion, especially when the
contracts are large and complex, when you can get issues of
contractual interpretation.”
This is not the first time that EMI and Apple Corps have been at
odds. Apple Corps sued EMI, which owns the copyright in the Beatles
recordings, in the late 70s, launching a legal dispute that finally
settled out of court in 1989.
