By Palak Devpura
A Nykaa social media manager scrolled through Instagram’s in-app music library, tapped a trending Bollywood track, and dropped it under a fifteen-second reel for a new lipstick shade. The reel went live. It performed well. Nobody imagined it would surface in the Delhi High Court a few months later.
In April, it did. Zee Entertainment filed a copyright suit against FSN E-Commerce Ventures, Nykaa’s parent. Zee’s reported claim: songs from its catalogue had been used in promotional reels without the separate commercial permission such content requires. Damages sought: approximately ₹2 crore ($230,000). Around 12 flagged reels were subsequently taken down.
Where the line sits
The proceedings are ongoing and the allegations are not yet findings. But the dispute has already exposed a widespread assumption in D2C marketing: if a song is inside Instagram’s in-app library, it must be safe to use. Zee’s reported position is that its licensing arrangement with Meta permits use for personal and non-commercial content — dance videos, birthday montages, wedding highlights. A branded reel promoting a lipstick is a different exercise: it drives awareness, brand recall and sales.
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That shift, from personal expression to commercial promotion, changes what permission is required.
A single song is not a single right. It carries at least three — composition, lyrics, sound recording — often owned by different parties. When a song is synchronized with visuals selling a product, another right kicks in: synchronization. That permission Instagram’s in-app library, in most reported cases, does not grant. The question is not whether the song was on Instagram, but what Instagram had the right to license, and whether that reached commercial campaigns.
Nykaa has reportedly moved to bring Meta into the proceedings, arguing that the platform’s representations about music availability are part of the story. The Court may examine the full chain: Zee as rights holder, Meta as platform licensee, Nykaa as the business that placed the music inside a branded campaign. Each layer carries different obligations — none understood by reading the fine print of a phone app.
What this means for founders
The Nykaa–Zee dispute lands in a marketing culture where content moves faster than legal review. Teams produce dozens of reels a week. The temptation to skip a licensing check because the music is in the app is enormous. But a reel that lives on the feed for 48 hours can trigger a legal notice that lives for years.
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At Spinach Laws, we build a content-licensing protocol into the earliest brand operations we set up. Which platforms music is licensed from, and for what use. Whether influencer contracts assign underlying rights back to the brand. Whether agency deliverables carry indemnities for third-party content. Whether the digital asset repository stores licenses next to files. None of this is glamorous. All of it is cheaper than a suit.
A branded reel may look identical to a personal one on a phone screen. In law, they are not. Nykaa’s legal team will spend months arguing where that line sits. Founders should not wait for the judgment to find out.
(Palak Devpura is co-founder of Spinach Laws, a startup-focused legal services firm advising founders on incorporation, brand protection and cross-border transactions. This column is part of the ongoing Spinach Laws x The American Bazaar series on law for founders.)