Signal GEMA v. Suno: Munich court's verdict on AI music training due July 31

Summary

The Munich Regional Court's 42nd Civil Chamber, presided over by Judge Elke Schwager, is scheduled to render its verdict on July 31, 2026 in GEMA v. Suno, a case filed in January 2025 by German collecting society GEMA, which represents about 95,000 German composers, lyricists and publishers plus over 2 million rights holders worldwide. The verdict date was postponed from June 12 for internal administrative reasons, with the court giving no signal on how it would rule. At a March 9, 2026 hearing, the court played both original recordings and Suno's AI-generated outputs for six contested works, including "Forever Young," "Mambo No. 5" and "Rasputin." Suno's attempt to have Judge Schwager recused, on grounds she had ruled against OpenAI in a related GEMA case four months earlier, was denied. That earlier ruling, issued November 11, 2025, found ChatGPT's memorization and reproduction of nine German song lyrics infringed copyright and that the EU's text-and-data-mining exception did not apply; OpenAI has said it will appeal. Under German law, a first-instance judgment is immediately enforceable even pending appeal, raising the stakes of the Suno verdict beyond Germany.