Update – November 23rd 04:53pm:

The band have now released an official statement on the matter, you can find it here.

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Original Story:

An Illinois jury has decided in A Day To Remember‘s favor in their long-running court battle with Victory Records. The band first filed suit against the label back in 2011, alleging breach of contract, disputed ownership of the band’s copyrighted works and more. The label meanwhile argued that the band exited the label before fulfilling the commitment of albums delivered via their recording contract. That contract stipulated five albums to be delivered, with Victory Records arguing that re-releases of prior recorded output and live recordings didn’t count towards the stipulated albums.

As the years progressed, the divide between the two parties grew uglier with Victory Records eventually withholding payments of royalties to the band after they allegedly spiked a merchandise deal the label had with Hot Topic.

Law360.com report that the two-week trial ended yesterday, November 22nd, resulting in the jury siding with the band and that Victory Records will be forced to pay the band $4 million dollars for unpaid royalties and withheld proceeds from digital downloads and merchandise sales. In particular, they found that some of the albums Victory Records had released by the band did count towards their contract. A previous statement prior to the trial issued by Victory Records read as follows:

“The core issue in the lawsuit is how many “Albums” A Day To Remember delivered under its agreement with Victory Records. Not once before filing the lawsuit did ADTR claim to Victory or to the public that they had satisfied their 5-Album recording commitment. They never asserted that Victory’s efforts concerning the marketing, promotion and distribution of the albums was anything less than stellar. During the years ADTR considered itself a Victory artist, they never complained about royalties. Including the recent article in Kerrang!, virtually every press outlet that has covered ADTR’s album releases since 2006 have reported the number of full length studio albums ADTR released in total – this includes the three albums released by Victory (2007’s For Those Who Have Heart, 2009’s Homesick, 2010’s What Separates Me From You), Old Record (a 2008 re-release of a previous ADTR album on Indianola Records as part of a separate agreement), 2013’s Common Courtesy (the “Fifth” album), and now Bad Vibrations (the “Sixth” Album). ADTR’s inherently absurd claim that they delivered 13 “Albums” in the first two years of their agreement with Victory defies common sense, logic and reality.”

As the jury did not agree with Victory Records on this assertion, they found the label at fault. Furthermore, the jury granted the band the composition rights to their songs, while Victory Records were awarded the sound recording copyrights. Bassist Josh Woodard commented to law360.com of the verdict saying that it was: “Incredible, a little surreal, like you can breathe finally.” If you’re curious for more, law360.com have a lot more details to read on the outcome of the trial.