Counterfeit merchandise has lengthy been a fixture of the reside music financial system. For many years, bootleggers have hawked unauthorized T-shirts, posters, and different items exterior live performance venues.
However in current months, the music business has considerably ramped up its authorized motion towards the observe — each on the venue gates and on-line — with artists and merch corporations more and more turning to federal courts to crack down on unauthorized sellers.
Over the weekend, information broke that Dwell Nation subsidiary Merch Site visitors had filed a trademark infringement lawsuit on behalf of Bruce Springsteen & The E Avenue Band, looking for a brief restraining order and seizure order forward of the group’s April 20 date on the Prudential Heart in Newark, New Jersey.
Now, in keeping with a separate submitting noticed by MBW, HYBE is cracking down too.
A criticism filed on April 9 within the US District Court docket for the Center District of Florida (Tampa Division) sees HYBE, BIGHIT Music, and HYBE America sue unnamed people and firms — listed as John Does 1-100, Jane Does 1-100, and XYZ Corporations 1-100 — described within the submitting as bootleggers whose identities will not be but recognized. The criticism states that it “will likely be amended when their true names and capacities are ascertained.”
“The Bootleg Merchandise is usually of inferior high quality. The sale of such merchandise is more likely to injure the status of BTS and Plaintiffs, which have developed the status for prime quality related to the Tour Merchandise by advantage of BTS’s public performances and Plaintiffs’ sale of formally licensed BTS merchandise in reference to such performances.”
excerpt from criticism filed by HYBE
The submitting, which you’ll learn in full right here, arrives forward of BTS’s performances at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on April 25, 26, and 28 — the opening dates of the group’s US tour. Reasonably than focusing on particular recognized defendants, the criticism is designed to safe a courtroom order that may give HYBE’s brokers and legislation enforcement the authorized authority to grab counterfeit merchandise from whoever turns up promoting it in and across the venues.
The plaintiffs are looking for a brief restraining order and seizure order authorizing “brokers of Plaintiffs, the native and state police, and/or any individuals appearing underneath their supervision, to grab and impound any and all Bootleg Merchandise which the Defendants try to promote, distribute or maintain on the market at, inside, or within the neighborhood of the Tampa Reveals and the opposite U.S. live performance performances on the present Tour, earlier than, throughout and after stated live shows.”
The criticism alleges that defendants “will promote and distribute unauthorized, infringing, and counterfeit T-shirts, posters, and different merchandise” bearing BTS’s logos “within the neighborhood of the Tampa Reveals earlier than, throughout and after the efficiency, and at subsequent live shows throughout the Tour as they’ve finished on each different prior BTS tour.”
That bootleg merchandise, the submitting states, is “of the identical basic look” as official tour merchandise and is “more likely to trigger confusion amongst potential purchasers,” whereas being “typically of inferior high quality.”
The criticism warns that such exercise is “more likely to trigger the buying public to imagine that the sale of such Bootleg Merchandise is permitted, sponsored, or accredited by BTS and Plaintiffs and that such Bootleg Merchandise is topic to the identical high quality management and regulation required by BTS and Plaintiffs.” It provides that the sale of counterfeit items “additionally injures Artist and Plaintiffs in that Defendants wouldn’t have to pay any royalty for these illegal gross sales.”
The submitting brings 4 causes of motion: violation of the Lanham Act, unfair competitors, violation of the proper of publicity underneath Florida statute, and violation of the Florida Misleading and Unfair Commerce Practices Act. It additionally seeks damages and the supply and destruction of all bootleg merchandise.
HYBE notes that it beforehand obtained similar reduction in reference to BTS live shows in 2019 and 2021, when courts in California and the Northern District of Illinois granted short-term restraining orders and licensed the seizure of counterfeit items. In these circumstances, “HYBE and its licensed representatives seized a considerable quantity of counterfeit and infringing Bootleg Merchandise from bootleggers within the neighborhood of BTS’s live performance performances,” the criticism states.
The submitting additionally reveals that HYBE has licensed BTS’s logos for official tour merchandise to its wholly-owned US subsidiary, HYBE America, which has entered into an settlement with Amazon.com Companies, LLC to promote official tour merchandise.
HYBE is represented by Ok&L Gates (Miami) and Loeb & Loeb (New York).
The HYBE and Springsteen filings are the most recent in a rising wave of anti-counterfeiting litigation throughout the music business, focusing on each bodily bootleggers at live performance venues and knock-off sellers on-line.
On the touring aspect, Sony‘s merch enterprise Ceremony of Roses has lately obtained courtroom orders focusing on bootleggers at Benson Boone and Dua Lipa live shows, whereas Merch Site visitors beforehand filed comparable claims in reference to Tate McRae‘s Miss Possessive Tour.
On the e-commerce entrance, the property of late rapper MF Doom and pop duo Twenty One Pilots have each filed lawsuits towards Temu over alleged knock-off merchandise offered on the platform. In 2023, Harry Kinds focused sellers on AliExpress, Amazon, eBay, and Etsy, and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour sued the operator of a faux on-line storefront promoting unauthorized merch.
The surge in authorized motion displays the rising monetary significance of merchandise to the music enterprise.
The merch operation on the world’s largest music firm, UMG‘s Bravado, for instance, generated $912 million in income in 2025 and is bound to have a billion {dollars} in annual turnover in its sights for 2026.
As MBW has beforehand reported, the growth in reside music has made ancillary earnings at live shows, notably from attire and client items, an more and more important earnings stream for artists and their companions.
In accordance with MIDiA Analysis, expanded rights income — which covers labels’ participation in merch, reside, and branding — grew 21.5% in 2025.
On the identical time, counterfeiting has turn into simpler than ever. The proliferation of low-cost producers and print-on-demand providers has lowered the barrier to producing knock-off items, whereas on-line platforms have given small-time sellers entry to a world buyer base.
The US leg of the BTS WORLD TOUR ARIRANG is scheduled to go to 10 cities between April and September, with stadium dates in Tampa, El Paso, Stanford, Las Vegas, East Rutherford, Foxborough, Baltimore, Arlington, Chicago, and Los Angeles.Music Enterprise Worldwide
