CAA sues Range Media, alleges theft of information

Creative Artists Agency (CAA) is suing management company Range Media Partners in the US, accusing the firm of stealing confidential information.

The explosive lawsuit, filed in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles, describes Range, which works with talent such as Jack Harlow, Rita Ora, Shaboozey, Pentatonix, Saweetie and PartyNextDoor, as “an unlicensed talent agency built on deceit”.

It alleges that Range’s founder – former CAA agent Peter Micelli – sought a “shortcut to success” by finding “four highly-paid CAA leaders to act as his accomplices” in the run-up to launching Range in 2020.  CAA identifies Range co-founders Jack Whigham, David Bugliari, Michael Cooper and Mick Sullivan as the alleged “accomplices” who “carried out a scheme designed to give Range an unlawful competitive edge”.

It accuses the agents of “posing as loyal CAA members, sitting shoulder to shoulder in confidential CAA meetings about clients and business, all while covertly working to benefit Range and themselves, and to harm CAA”.

“Range’s founders publicly announced its launch in August 2020,” reads the filing. “However, in truth, by August 2020, Micelli and the accomplices had spent months stealing confidential information from CAA for Range’s benefit.”

The complaint, which demands a jury trial, continues: “Specifically, Micelli and the accomplices sought to benefit Range by breaching their obligations to CAA and causing other CAA employees to do the same. The accomplices, working in concert with Micelli, induced other CAA employees – who the Range founders knew were bound by confidentiality and loyalty obligations to CAA – to assist in stealing CAA’s confidential information.

“CAA will fiercely protect the agency against improper market conduct and the misuse of its confidential information”

“The Range founders understood they were engaging in misconduct and tried to cover their tracks to avoid getting caught: urging more junior CAA employees to download encrypted messaging apps to avoid CAA detecting their communications, and directing CAA employees to export confidential information for delivery to certain of the accomplices’ personal email accounts and cellphones. The accomplices did all this while still working as senior CAA leaders and talent agents.”

Furthermore, CAA claims the company’s business model is “the pursuit of unlawful profit through deception” by not registering as an agency to circumvent the WGA Code of Conduct.

“Range skirts rules that California legislators and artists’ guilds put in place to protect those working in the entertainment industry,” adds the lawsuit. “The core ‘trick’ of Range is that it acts as a talent agency but labels itself a management company,” it says. “Range thereby engages in lucrative transactions foreclosed to law-abiding talent agencies.”

In a statement to IQ, CAA counsel Elena Baca of Paul Hastings LLP adds: “CAA is prepared to prove that Range Media was formed through dishonest conduct and, as reflected in other public, pending legal proceedings about Range’s failure to comply with arbitration subpoenas, has concealed evidence of its founders’ actions.

“Peter Micelli, along with his accomplices who were at CAA while founding Range, conducted a lengthy scheme to enrich themselves in ways that violated their contracts and legal obligations to CAA, talent guild regulations, and ethical boundaries, as CAA will demonstrate in court. CAA will fiercely protect the agency against improper market conduct and the misuse of its confidential information.”

IQ has approached Range Media for comment.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.