Paris Retailer Sued by Beyoncé and Others For Selling Bootleg Merch

Message tees are a huge trend right now, but a few celebs aren’t happy about it. Beyoncé, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Rihanna and Jay Z just filed a lawsuit together against French retailer, ElevenParis, claiming they never gave the label the go-ahead to bare their faces, names and messages on their apparel.

Apparently Beyonce had sent Eleven Paris several cease and desist letters, but the company continued to sell products featuring her (as well as the others mentioned above) name and lyrics. The legally questionable items include a mix of T-shirts, sweatshirts, tank tops, hats, phone cases, and backpacks plastered with phrases like “Hova” and “Pharrell is my brotha”.

A complaint was filed on Tuesday (October 6th) at a federal court in New York alleging that the company ElevenParis has ignored warnings previously issued by the artists to stop the items in question from being sold.

The last of 58 claims enumerated in the lawsuit is exclusively Beyonce’s; she contests that ElevenParis violated the terms of an unspecified deal she had struck with the company this January.

The suit also accuses the retailer and its affiliates of being “habitual, willful intellectual property infringers that, without authorization, usurp the trademarks, copyrights and other rights of A-list celebrities”.

In a statement, ElevenParis said that negotiations had been underway with the famous five for almost a year and were continuing.

Each of the artists also has their own clothing lines or collaborations with apparel manufacturers, the complaint said, generating “hundreds of millions of dollars” in sales. “ElevenParis is determined to find a fair and balanced agreement with them and their advisers”, it said.