Have you heard the news? This season’s trend in fashion is suing people. The latest legal battle is between Topshop and Rihanna. The singer is suing the British retailer for $5 million dollars for selling a shirt printed with her image. Before the lawsuit, Ms. Fenty tried other channels of getting the retailer to take the item off shelves. She was negotiating, but was only offered $5,000 by the Arcadia Group, a multinational retail company that owns Topshop, and was told to kick rocks.
Riri might be on the short end of the stick in this fight. UK law does not protect the artist when it comes to other people selling his or her image for profit. It basically works like a gossip magazine—the retailer pays the photographer for use of the image and that’s that. However, according to source, “even though the UK laws don’t protect the artist, she has decided to move forward and sue Topshop. She has spent almost $1 million in litigation at this point. She says it’s the principle, and wants to make a statement about it. They are taking advantage of artists. It is just exploitation. What they are doing is wrong.”
This will add more to her plate as she's currently in the middle of a a tour and still working on future collections for River Island. Hopefully this legal battle isn’t the reason she’s cancelling tour dates.
[via NYPost]
