Broadcast Music, Inc. v. North American Concert Promoters Association

Fair-market valuations turn on nuanced and recordbound factual determinations. This case involves a quintessential example: the rate paid to songwriters, composers, and publishers for public performances of their music at live concerts. Until now, the circuits have uniformly applied deferential, clear-error review to district courts’ fair-market valuations. In the decision below, however, the Second Circuit parted from its sister circuits and reviewed a fair-market-value determination and the individual components of that determination under an improperly stringent de novo standard. As this Court made clear in U.S. Bank National Association ex rel. CWCapital Asset Management LLC v. Village at Lakeridge, LLC, 583 U.S. 387 (2018), that approach to reviewing predominantly factual questions is erroneous. Moreover, it splits with the D.C., First, Third, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits, all of which have appropriately applied deferential standards of review to comparable fair-market-value determinations in various contexts. The question presented is: Whether a district court’s fair-market-value determination and its component parts, such as the selection of benchmark agreements, should be reviewed de novo or for clear error.