Sting has paid his former bandmates in The Police over $800,000 (£595,000) in royalties since they filed a lawsuit in September 2025, reports the BBC.
Lawyers for The Police drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers revealed the payment was made after they sued Sting and his publishing company last year, claiming Sting owed them between $2m (£1.5m) and $10.75m (£8m) in unpaid royalties.
At a Wednesday hearing in London’s High Court, the lawyers said the claim could rise even higher. They also said the “historic underpayment” did not include interest.
None of The Police members were in court, but Summers and Copeland’s legal team argued the language of agreements made in 1997 and 2016 should be reinterpreted to include money from downloads and streaming income.
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In response, Sting’s lawyers argued that his former bandmates are not owed royalties from streaming because that should be categorized as “public performance” instead of a sale. They also said the 2016 agreement only pays royalties “from the manufacture of records.”
The hearing is expected to conclude on Thursday, January 15th, with a full trial to follow.
While Copeland and Summers didn’t receive writing credits on The Police’s hits, they previously said Sting owed them “arranger’s fees” from the “digital exploitation” of the band’s back catalog.
Meanwhile, Sting’s lawyers have called the lawsuit an “illegitimate attempt” to reinterpret the 2016 agreement, arguing that Sting had “substantially overpaid” Copeland and Summers based on one interpretation of the original terms.
The dispute dates back to The Police’s formation in 1977, when Sting initially agreed to pay the pair “15 percent of some royalties” from songs he wrote for the group. After being formalized in 1981, the agreement was revised in 1997 in response to Copeland and Summers claiming that they had been underpaid “for a considerable period.”
For context on the money at stake, Sting reportedly earns £550,000, or approximately $740,000, in royalties each year on The Police’s classic hit “Every Breath You Take” alone.
