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High quality recordings specialist seeks stay of misleading marketing lawsuit as similar litigation reaches settlement
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 9 February 2023
Chicago-based Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab is trying to pause a lawsuit in its home state of Illinois over the allegations it used digital technology when mastering vinyl records which were advertised as being purely analogue recordings.
However, it only wants that litigation stayed because it’s close to reaching a deal on an almost identical lawsuit filed in Washington state.
The mastering processes employed by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab – aka MoFi – became a talking point online last summer. It’s a company that specialises in pressing up high quality reissues of records for the community of music fans that like such things.
It transpired that the company had started using direct stream digital – or DSD – technology when mastering many of its releases in 2011. However, this had not been reflected in the firm’s marketing copy.
As chatter about his company’s mastering processes and misleading copy began to build within the audiophile community, MoFi President Jim Davis posted a statement declaring: “We apologise for using vague language, allowing false narratives to propagate, and for taking for granted the goodwill and trust our customers place in the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab brand”.
Legal action followed, with the lawsuit filed with the Illinois courts explaining why, to the plaintiff at least, any of this mattered.
“Analogue records are coveted not only for their superior sound quality”, the lawsuit said, “but also for their collectability. Original recording tapes age, so only a limited number of analogue recordings can be produced. Further, because analogue tapes are those used to record songs in the studio, a record cut from original analogue tapes is as close to the studio recording as one can get”.
“Digital recordings, by contrast”, it goes on, “do not carry as much value because they can be reproduced infinitely; once a digital recording is made, it can be copied as many times as a person desires. Thus, when defendant began using a digital mastering process in its records as opposed to purely analogue, it inherently produced less valuable records”.
That lawsuit, filed by Adam Stiles, who has bought various MoFi releases over the years, sought class action status, meaning any success in court could benefit anyone else who had bought records from the company assuming they were purely analogue recordings when, in fact, they were not.
However, so did a very similar lawsuit filed by two other aggrieved customers over MoFi’s misleading marketing copy. That lawsuit was filed with the courts in Washington state two weeks before Stiles’ initial legal filing
MoFi has been seeking to reach agreement on a settlement in the Washington case. And if that settlement gets court approval, it argues, then the lawsuit filed by Stiles in Illinois – and three other lawsuits also filed on this issue – basically become unnecessary. Because the plaintiffs in those cases will benefit from the agreement in the Washington case.
According to a new legal filing with the Illinois courts, terms of a settlement in the Washington case were agreed in January, although the judge overseeing that case declined to approve what had been agreed, mainly because of some technicalities.
An amended version of the settlement was then submitted with the court last week dealing with the technicalities.
With that case seemingly close to completion – and with the principle under US law that where multiple cases are filed on the same dispute, the first lawsuit filed should be prioritised – MoFi would like the Illinois case formally paused.
According to Law360, the settlement in the Washington case would allow anyone who bought a MoFi release that was marketed in a way that suggested it was a purely analogue recording – even though DSD technology had been employed – to return the record for a full refund, or to keep the record and get a partial refund, or a voucher to use on future purchases.
