Ed Sheeran and his Shape Of You co-songwriters have been awarded more than £900,000 in legal fees after winning their copyright trial over “baseless” claims about the hit earlier this year.
Sheeran and two of his co-writers – Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid and producer Steve McCutcheon, known as Steve Mac – had been accused of plagiarising part of a track called Oh Why by Sami Chokri, a grime artist who performs as Sami Switch, and his co-writer Ross O’Donoghue.
But in April, following a High Court trial in March, the judge who heard the case ruled that the star “neither deliberately nor subconsciously” ripped off a hook from the song when writing the “Oh I” phrase for Shape Of You.
In the latest ruling, Mr Justice Zacaroli has now said the lesser-known songwriters should pay the legal costs for the case, ordering an interim payment of £916,200 – an amount which is expected to be assessed and finalised at a further hearing.
After Sheeran won the case, lawyers for Chokri and O’Donoghue argued that the star and the other claimants should pay their own legal costs, claiming they had failed to provide documents and demonstrated “awkwardness and opacity”.
However, making the order for costs on Tuesday, the judge said: “I consider it is appropriate that the claimants’ success is reflected in an order that their costs are paid by the defendants, without reduction save for that which is made as part of the process of detailed assessment.”
