Ceremony of Roses, a company backed by Sony, has filed a lawsuit over counterfeit Benson Boone merchandise. The venture is seeking to stop bootleggers from selling unofficial merch outside venues on Boone’s American Heart tour, in support of his sophomore album of the same name.
Billboard reports that, on Thursday (Aug. 28), Ceremony of Roses — which partnered with Sony three years ago — filed a federal court lawsuit claiming that many anonymous counterfeiters are selling fake merch outside the arenas and, if the courts do not intervene, they will continue to.
“The infringing merchandise that defendants sell is generally of inferior quality,” the company’s lawyers, Mark Bradford and Cara Burns, wrote in their legal brief. “The sale of such merchandise has injured and is likely to injure the reputation of the artist, which has developed by virtue of his public performances and the reputation of the plaintiff for high-quality authorized tour merchandise.”
The lawsuit also includes a statement from Ceremony of Roses’ touring VP Alan Sitchon, who says that, over the past week, merch bootleggers have shown up outside Boone’s shows in St. Paul, Chicago, Columbus, and Detroit.
“Individual bootleggers follow tours, or arrange to have local individuals sell the infringing merchandise for them,” explains Sitchon. “Many designs also have tour dates and venues on them, which also indicates that they will continue to go from venue to venue to sell their infringing merchandise.”
Ceremony of Roses is seeking a legal injunction that would allow law enforcement officers to “seize and impound counterfeit merch.” Bilboard noted that reps for Boone did not immediately return a request for comment on the lawsuit.
Nearly identical lawsuits have been filed on behalf of several other major artists
The claims in this lawsuit are very similar to ones in another lawsuit filed this week by fellow merch retailer Merch Traffic, over counterfeitters selling bootleg merch outside shows on Tate McRae’s Miss Possessive tour. Notably, Merch Traffic is represented in that case by the same attorneys representing Ceremony of Roses.
According to Billboard, this is not unprecedented, as similar lawsuits have been filed and won on behalf of Harry Styles, Drake, Beyoncé, and Post Malone.
The post Sony Does Not Want People Buying Bootleg Benson Boone Merch and They’re Going To Court Over It appeared first on VICE.
