Italy's competition and consumer authority, known as the AGCM, said on Tuesday, Oct. 6, that it has opened an investigation into Suno, the U.S. company whose AI makes songs and other audio from what people type or upload. The case is about Suno's terms of service, the contract every user accepts to use the app. The authority says some of its clauses may be unfair under Italy's Consumer Code, because they may tilt the rights and duties in the contract against the people who use it.
The authority lists several clauses. It says the terms seem to let Suno change the contract, the service and subscription prices on its own without giving a reason, and to suspend or close a user's account, along with the songs and other content in it, at any time, for any reason and without notice. It also says the terms seem to ask users to accept extra terms they cannot see before they sign up, and appear to limit what Suno can be held responsible for in very broad language, even for personal injury. Suno's own terms, dated Sept. 3, say it may close an account and remove content "for any reason" at its "sole discretion," and may change the terms "at any time."
The authority singles out copyright. To use Suno, people grant the company a worldwide, permanent license to use, copy, change and distribute everything they upload and create, which the authority says seems too loosely defined and all-encompassing. It says the terms also appear to make users give up their moral rights, which Italian copyright law keeps with the author even after the rights to use and earn from a work are handed over: the right to be named as the creator and to object to changes that would harm their honor or reputation. The authority says that waiver would go against Italy's 1941 copyright law.
It also questions how users can bring complaints. Suno's terms send most disputes to binding individual arbitration, a private process outside the courts with only limited review by a judge, which the authority says is run in the United States. Users give up the right to join a class action, must bring claims within one year, and any case that does not go to arbitration belongs in Massachusetts courts.
The authority has made no finding yet: its statement says only that the terms may be unfair. In the coming weeks it will open a public consultation on the clauses, where national trade groups, chambers of commerce and recognized consumer associations can weigh in. It has not said when it will decide or what Suno would have to change, and Suno has not said whether it will rewrite its terms.