Summer Walker in Legal Dispute With Interscope Over Record Deal – Billboard

Walker invoked California’s seven-year statute to terminate her contract with Interscope. The label has now responded with a lawsuit. Summer Walker attends the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards at UBS Arena on September 07, 2025 in Elmont, New York. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Trending on Billboard Summer Walker and Interscope Records are in a legal dispute over the status of her record deal. Walker, who signed a joint deal with the Universal Music Group (UMG) subsidiary and label/management company LVRN in 2017, sent a notice of termination to Interscope in August. Interscope responded on Friday (Oct. 9) by submitting a lawsuit, obtained and first reported by Billboard, alleging that if Walker does indeed break their deal, she’d owe $50 million for not yet delivering all her promised albums. Related The singer-songwriter is invoking California’s “seven-year statute,” a 1944 state law that allows an individual to exit a personal services contract after that amount of time. The statute was amended in 1987 to allow record labels to sue artists for damages if they leave after seven years but before fulfilling all their album commitments. Under that law, labels only have 45 days to bring such lawsuits in response to contract termination notices.
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