Kwik-Fit has been taken to court by the Performing Rights Society after being accused of breaking musical copyright because its employees listen to radios at work.

At a procedural hearing at the Court of Session in Edinburgh a judge refused to dismiss the £200,000 damages claim. Kwik-Fit wanted the case brought against it thrown out.

The PRS claims Kwik-Fit mechanics use personal radios while working at service centres across the UK and that music, protected by copyright, could be heard by colleagues and customers.

It is maintained that amounts to the "playing" or "performance" of the music in public and renders the firm guilty of infringing copyright.

The Edinburgh-based firm is contesting the action and said it has a 10 year policy banning the use of personal radios in the workplace.

The PRS lodged details of countrywide inspection data over the audible playing of music at Kwik-Fit on more than 250 occasions in and after 2005.