Why Sting is being sued by his former The Police bandmates

3 September 2025, 12:26

Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers are taking their former bandmate to court for losses of around £1.5 million.

Sting’s former The Police bandmates are suing the ‘Every Breath You Take’ singer for £1.5 million in royalties they allege they’re owed from the group’s successful back-catalogue of songs.

The Police’s guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland have filed a civil case at the High Court against Sting, aka Gordon Sumner, claiming they’ve been underpaid for their contributions to tracks including ‘Every Breath You Take’ and ‘Roxanne’.

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While neither of the two has writing credits on the songs in question, the duo’s High Court case alleges Sting has broken an “oral agreement” which the band made in 1977 (later formalised in writing in 1981 and revised in 1995 and 2016) that the band would share the income earned from their tracks.

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However, Sting has denied his former group’s claims that he has underpaid them, with his lawyers calling their claims “illegitimate” (via BBC.co.uk).

Summers and Copeland’s case revolves around the complex world of modern music royalties, where generally, the money artists receive from their songs’ successes is grouped into two categories: performance royalties and mechanical royalties.

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Performance royalties are paid when songs are played publicly, on the radio, TV, or via a streaming service; meanwhile, mechanical royalties come from when a song is reproduced onto physical media (e.g. CD or vinyl) or streamed on demand.

While Summers and Copeland are arguing they should be entitled to both kinds of royalties per the terms of the group’s agreement, Sting argues their agreement only covers sharing out the band’s mechanical royalties.

The Police - Every Breath You Take (Official Music Video)

In the past, the group has been open about the tensions that marred their working relationships prior to their breakup in 1984.

Copeland told The Guardian in 2024: “The Police’s recording sessions were very dark. We beat the crap out of each other.”

While he added that the group “had a great bond” which has seemingly lasted, this bond “wasn’t strong enough to make recording together very easy.”

There are also still notable tensions felt between the former bandmates over certain songs and songwriting credits.

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For example, Summers has spoken about how he is the one who invented ‘Every Breath You Take’'s famous guitar riff, despite Sting being the only member listed as its songwriter.

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In an interview with The Guitarist in 2022, he shared that the “song was going to be thrown out” before he suggested he knew what was needed.

“Sting says: ‘Well, go on then, go in there and make it your own,’ and I did it in one take,” Summers added, while swearing that rather than doing it for bragging rights: “It was more about keeping those other b*****ds happy.”