Dionne Warwick has filed a lawsuit against an artist rights firm, accusing the company of stealing “millions of dollars in royalty income” regarding several of her chart-topping hits. 

Details on AREC’s lawsuit and Warwick’s countersuit

Arts Rights Enforcement Corp. first sued Warwick in December, claiming the singer hadn’t held up her end of the partnership. The company stated further that it was owed “hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars” for negotiating the “Walk On By” sample rapper Doja Cat used in her single “Paint the Town Red,” which reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in 2023, according to Billboard and Pitchfork. 

In response to those claims, Warwick’s lawyers filed a countersuit on Monday, stating how the company had allegedly exploited the 85-year-old singer. They accused AREC of being a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” that only claims to help artists reclaim their music. 

Warwick’s lawyers also stated that things went awry after she signed a one-page agreement with AREC in 2001. The company allegedly took millions of dollars from her over the years, despite promising she would be entitled to “an ongoing fifty percent of all sums and assets which are recovered.” Warwick also didn’t have a lawyer when she signed the agreement, Pitchfork reported.

“Ms. Warwick seeks to expose AREC’s performative ethics and vindicate her rights and obtain restitution for the damages caused by AREC’s decades-long pilfering of millions of dollars in royalty income she earned as a result her legendary recordings,” Warwick’s lawyer, Robert S. Meloni, wrote in the court filing, obtained and first reported by Billboard.

Why did Warwick want AREC’s services?

Warwick first sought out AREC in 2001 to recover royalties that were allegedly owed to her by then-called Warner Bros. Records. The six-time Grammy Award winner, who released her first single, “Don’t Make Me Over,” in 1962, believed that her deal with the company only involved her dispute with Warner Bros., but her lawyers say it extended beyond that.

“Instead, for 23 years AREC took a 50% share of anything and everything that flowed as a result of her creative output from 1962 to 2001,” the suit states.

Billboard reported that Warwick learned about the issue in September when she hired music attorney Douglas J. Davis, who “immediately demanded more detailed records from the group, and later terminated the deal when such files were not provided, sparking the December lawsuit.” Warwick’s legal team claimed that AREC had stolen royalties from songs including “Walk On By,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” “That’s What Friends Are For,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose,” “Alfie,” and others she recorded throughout her storied career.

What is AREC saying?

On Tuesday, AREC responded to Warwick’s complaint, upholding their agreement and stating she had only received a fraction of the owed compensation before hiring the company. 

“Artists Rights’ work has multiplied the amount of royalties that Ms. Warwick receives, both from her classic masters and the expanded use of her work, such as Doja Cat’s hit ‘Paint the Town Red,'” the group said in a statement to Billboard. “We look forward to proving that Artists Rights is entitled to its fee for the extensive work it has done for Ms. Warwick.”