With the recent purge on Instagram, Justin Bieber lost more than 3.5m fans, December 23, 2014.

In the original lawsuit, they assert that multiple versions of the Bieber/Usher effort sound very similar to their song, also named “Somebody to Love,” according to court records acquired by EW.

Defendants in the lawsuit also include Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Publishing Group and Sony Corp’s Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

Duncan Byers, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, in an interview said the panel “recognized what my clients have said all along: it’s the same melody and the same chorus”.

The lawsuit must not return to the lower court for a jury trial.

The track is featured on the 21-year-old’s album My World 2.0, and was brought into question by songwriter Mareio Overton and singer Devin Copeland.

The song reached number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was a top 20 hit in Canada, Japan, Germany and New Zealand.

They claimed Usher had been exposed to the piece through mutual acquaintances, but Virginia judge Arenda Allen dismissed the accusations a year ago (14), declaring: “The songs can not be reasonably construed as being substantially similar”. She added that “a reasonable jury could find that these small variations wouldn’t prevent a member of the general public from hearing substantial similarity”.