PPL moves Delhi High Court against Tim Hortons, Sandoz and Gola Sizzlers for playing music without licence

Canadian coffeehouse and restaurant chain Tim Hortons has stated before the Delhi High Court that it will not play music recordings belonging to Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) without a licence..The statement was made by Tim Hortons' counsel after PPL filed a case for copyright infringement against the restaurant, as well as Gola Sizzlers and Sandoz.PPL owns and controls radio, broadcasting and public performance rights for over 400 music labels, with over 45 lakh international and domestic sound recordings. Its members include T Series, Sony Music, Universal and many others..In an interim order passed on October 20, Justice C Hari Shankar also restrained Gola Sizzlers and Sandoz Restaurants from playing the music recordings belonging to PPL.“Till the next date of hearing, the defendants as well as all other acting on their behalf shall stand restrained from exploiting or using or in any manner, or transmitting the plaintiff’s copyrighted works forming part of its repertoire available on its website https://www.pplindia.org/songs at any of its premises, without obtaining a prior license from the plaintiff,” the Court ordered..PPL had approached the High Court arguing that the defendant restaurants were playing sound recordings without obtaining licence. Several notices sent to them to stop the same had not elicited any response, PPL claimed. It, therefore, sought a decree of permanent injunction..Counsel appearing for Tim Hortons told the Court that it was neither playing nor intending to play any of the recordings belonging to PPL.The Court recorded the same and bound the restaurant chain to the statement.As no one appeared for other respondent restaurants, the Court passed an ex parte ad interim injunction order against them. Justice Hari Shankar also issued summons on the suit..PPL was represented through Senior Advocate Chander M Lall. He was assisted by a team from Khaitan & Co headed by Partner Ankur Sangal and comprising Principal Associate Sucheta Roy and Associates Raghu Vinayak Sinha Shaurya Pandey,Advocates NB Joshi, Vijay Kasana, Chetna Singh, Abhijeet Vikram Singh, Kshitij Chhabra, Chirag Verma and Shivang Srivastava appeared for Tim Hortons..[Read Order]