Mariah Carey wins ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ copyright case

21 March 2025, 14:35

Mariah Carey has been cleared of copyright infringement. Picture: Getty/Alamy

By Hannah Watkin

The ‘Emotions’ singer was accused of copying a 1988 song in her hit 1994 hit track.

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Mariah Carey has been cleared of copyright infringement in her popular Christmas song ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’.

The 55-year-old was taken to court by songwriters Andy Stone (performance name Vince Vance) and Troy Powers, who claimed Mariah’s song exploited their own festive track of the same name’s “popularity” and “style”.

But a federal judge on Wednesday (March 19) dismissed this case, finding that as expert testimony had cited during its proceedings, the two songs just featured similar “Christmas song clichés and commonplace words” which could also be found in earlier tracks.

Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You (Official Video)

Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani added that Mr Stone, Mr Powers and their lawyers failed to meet “their burden of showing” that the two songs were “substantially similar under the extrinsic test”.

She also said they should face sanctions for having filed “frivolous” arguments with “incomprehensible mixtures of factual assertions and conclusions, subjective opinions, and other irrelevant evidence.”

Andy, Troy and their lawyers have been ordered to reimburse Mariah for the legal bills she has incurred defending the case, a very different outcome to the $20 million (£15.4 million) or more they had been hoping to win in damages.

Mariah Carey singing along Mariah Carey is an actual Christmas miracle

The case was originally filed against Mariah in 2022, with the country songwriters accusing the ‘Without You’ singer of “hubris knowing no bounds” for saying she and her co-writer Walter Afanasieff wrote the song without taking inspiration from their song of the same name.

But today the judge found in favour of Mariah and her team who had called for the court to dismiss this case in August 2024.

In a statement then, they argued: “The claimed similarities are an unprotectable jumble of elements: A title and hook phrase used by many earlier Christmas songs, other commonplace words, phrases, and Christmas tropes like 'Santa Claus' and 'mistletoe.’”