Fuerza Regida accuses Rancho Humilde of 'unlawful personal services captivity' in latest court filing

A legal fight with growing stakes

The dispute between Fuerza Regida and their label Rancho Humilde has taken a sharper turn. In a court filing dated May 14, attorneys for the band urged a judge to let them keep pressing their case under California's seven-year rule, a provision that bars exclusive personal services contracts, including record deals, from running longer than seven years. According to Billboard, which obtained the filing first, the group is now accusing the label of holding them in "unlawful personal services captivity."

The band says that illegal grip has cost them concrete opportunities, among them appearances at the MLB World Baseball Classic this spring and the upcoming FIFA World Cup.

How the case got here

Rancho Humilde, the indie label founded by Jimmy Humilde and widely credited with fueling the corridos tumbados wave, filed a lawsuit in September accusing Fuerza of breaching their contract by doing features without permission and signing live performance deals with Apple Music and Live Nation. The label claimed the group could owe more than $15 million in damages.

Fuerza countersued roughly a month later, alleging the label had withheld millions in royalties and tried to sabotage the group's career, including by leaving them off Latin Grammy Awards submissions. The band also says the retaliation has extended to blocking them from the Grand Theft Auto video game soundtrack.

The seven-year argument is a central piece of Fuerza's case. Rancho pushed back last month, arguing that new contracts signed in 2021 and 2022 had each reset the clock. The label said those deals came with a $1.8 million settlement payment and a $300,000 signing bonus, making each one a fresh agreement rather than a continuation of the original 2018 deal.

Fuerza's response

The band's attorneys are not buying it. They argue that California Labor Code Section 2855 is "rooted in California's constitutional prohibition on involuntary servitude" and cannot be bypassed simply by layering additional contracts on top of one another. As for the 2021 and 2022 deals, the filing states the group had no real choice but to sign: "The old contract was in force. FRC could not negotiate with anyone else."

For context, 111XPANTIA, the band's most recent album, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, the highest chart position ever reached by a Spanish-language album from a duo or group.

The case is still in its early stages. A judge must first decide which accusations from each side survive before the parties move into discovery and toward a potential trial. Neither Fuerza Regida nor Rancho Humilde had commented by May 15.