Rihanna is suing Topshop for $5 million over an unauthorized T-shirt bearing her image.
According to the NY Post , the British retailer has been selling a T-shirt with Rihanna’s image on the front without the singer’s consent. RiRi asked the company several times to pull the shirt and has now filed a $5 million lawsuit.
Topshop doesn’t seemed to concerned about the lawsuit. The Telegraph reports that the company purchased the image of Rihanna from a photographer and is not required to pay any licensing fees to the artist. Topshop offered Rihanna $5,000 and said that they “didn’t care” about the lawsuit.
The company is not selling the shirt in the United States and the United Kingdom’s laws do not protect the artists.
But Rihanna is still hoping to get paid for the t-shirt. The singer hired international law firm Reed Smith to file the $5 million lawsuit in London.
A source said : “Rihanna’s management asked Topshop a number of times to stop selling her image and were told, ‘We do what we want.’ They buy the pictures from a photographer, but they do not pay the artist licensing fees. Unfortunately, UK law does not protect the artist … What is most offensive for Rihanna is that they basically told her, ‘Go to hell. We don’t care; we are going to continue selling you.’”
According to the source, the singer acknowledged that she is fighting an uphill battle since the UK is unlikely to side with her. Rihanna has reportedly spent close to $1 million on litigation at this point and says that she wants to make a statement that company’s cannot take advantage of international artists.
[Image Via Ebay ]
