Zee v. Nykaa (India): What Every Brand and Their Counsel Needs to Know About Music on Instagram

Zee Entertainment Enterprises, one of the biggest entertainment houses in India, filed a lawsuit at the Delhi High Court against Nykaa (India’s largest beauty, wellness and fashion retailer), seeking approximately $200,000 in damages on the grounds that Nykaa used Zee’s copyrighted songs as background music in 12 Instagram reels to promote its products, without a licence.

The case is pending for hearing on May 26. Nykaa has already removed the flagged reels, but removal does not extinguish liability for past infringement.

The Licensing Gap at the Heart of the Case

Zee holds a licensing agreement with Meta Platforms that permits individuals to use its music on Instagram, but for non-commercial purposes only. Nykaa, the lawsuit alleges, used that music commercially: in product promotion content published to millions of followers.

Instagram’s music library appears freely accessible. For personal and creator accounts, it effectively is. But the moment content is designed to sell a product or promote a brand, it is commercial content, and Instagram’s licences do not cover it. The required instrument is a synchronisation (sync) licence: a separate, negotiated authorisation permitting music to be paired with commercial visuals. Instagram does not provide this. The brand must obtain it independently.

The fact that a song appears in the app’s library is not authorisation. It never was.

Part of a Broader Enforcement Push by Zee

The Nykaa case is not isolated. On April 14, Zee filed a 1,800-page suit against JioStar (the Reliance-Disney joint venture), seeking $3 million in damages on the grounds that JioStar used Zee’s music at least 50 times across music and dance shows on TV and on the JioHotstar streaming platform after licensing agreements expired in 2024 and 2025 and were not renewed due to disagreements over commercial terms.

The Delhi High Court has directed JioStar to ensure no ongoing infringement while the matter is heard, with compliance required within 15 days; the next hearing is in July. JioStar’s defence has two components: in December 2025 it told Zee it had taken “extensive steps to remove any infringing content across its portfolio” including legacy programming; and it has separately argued that “residual and passive archival hosting” does not amount to infringement or unlawful communication.

The Influencer Dimension

The Nykaa case involves direct use on the brand’s own account, but there is a related risk that deserves attention: influencer content. A creator using a popular track on their personal account may be within the scope of the platform licence. The moment they enter a paid partnership with a brand (whether that is disclosed or not), the content becomes commercial. The personal-use licence does not follow the content into that partnership.

Brands that route music through influencer accounts, assuming this provides insulation, are mistaken. Copyright law is concerned with the purpose of the use, not the account type from which it is published.

What Brand Teams and Counsel Should Do Now

• Audit current social content. Identify any promotional reels or branded videos using music sourced from Instagram’s in-app library. Flag for review.
• Build a licensed music toolkit. Invest in commercially cleared, royalty-free music libraries for all brand content. The market for these is well-developed.
• Revise influencer contracts. Include explicit music compliance warranties. Require creators to use only royalty-free or properly cleared tracks in any content connected to the brand.
• Treat removal as triage, not resolution. Taking content down stops ongoing exposure but does not eliminate liability for the period the content was live. Proactive compliance is the correct standard.
• Obtain sync licences for campaign content. Any video content that synchronises music with brand visuals for commercial purposes requires a sync licence obtained directly from the rights holder, independent of whatever the platform permits.

Rights holders in India are becoming more sophisticated in monitoring and enforcing their catalogues across digital platforms. As short-form video consolidates its position as the primary advertising format for consumer brands, the intersection of music rights and social media marketing is only going to become more contested.

Related reading: When Brands Borrow Bollywood: The Legal Risks of Using Movie Characters in Advertising — a related discussion of how brands navigate Bollywood IP in advertising more broadly.