British pop star Ellie Goulding has filed a lawsuit against her former managers, claiming they concealed their financial connections to Live Nation while brokering deals on her behalf a move she says prioritized their profits over hers.
The legal action targets Ben Mawson and Ed Millett, co-founders of TaP Management, who guided Goulding’s career from 2018 until earlier this year. Goulding contends that her managers failed to disclose that TaP’s parent company was owned in part by Live Nation during negotiations involving the entertainment powerhouse.
At the heart of the dispute is what Goulding describes as a hidden financial arrangement. Live Nation purchased a 50.1 percent stake in HNOE, TaP Management’s parent company, in 2015, later acquiring full ownership four years later. Goulding claims she was kept in the dark about this structure throughout her time with the firm.
The singer argues the setup created an obvious conflict. While Mawson and Millett hammered out agreements with Live Nation-connected companies, they stood to gain financially from those very same deals a dual interest that should have been disclosed, she contends.
Over her seven years with TaP Management, Goulding inked multiple deals involving Live Nation and its offshoots, spanning concert promotion, merchandise sales, and a documentary project. She alleges her managers could have profited from these arrangements while simultaneously tasked with securing her best possible terms. Contract language, she further claims, actually limited how aggressively managers could push artists to scale back their Live Nation business.
Goulding is seeking unspecified damages and accuses her former managers of breaching their fiduciary duty. Neither Mawson nor Millett has publicly commented on the case, and Live Nation isn’t named as a defendant.
Goulding parted ways with TaP in 2025 after releasing albums including “Brightest Blue” and “Higher Than Heaven” under their management. She has since reunited with manager Sarah Stennett and joined WME for global representation.
The case highlights growing concerns over transparency and conflict-of-interest issues in artist management, particularly when managers’ financial stakes overlap with the deals they negotiate for their clients.
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