Ariana Grande has filed a lawsuit against Forever 21, claiming that the fashion retailer used the singer’s “name, image, likeness, and music to promote their brands and products” without her permission.
Filed on Monday, the suit claims that the chain attempted to partner with the pop star in “early 2019” but Grande declined “due to Forever 21’s unwillingness to pay the fair market value for a celebrity of Ms. Grande’s stature.”
Despite that, the suit claims that Forever 21 went on to use imagery from Grande’s album and song “Thank U Next,” including visuals from her video for “7 Rings,” in order to “create the false perception of her endorsement.”
The complaint, which features numerous images that Forever 21’s Instagram page shared alongside eerily similar stills from Grande’s videos, alleges that the brand stole Grande’s likeness and launched “a misleading campaign across its website and social media platforms primarily in January and February 2019.”
Owing to her claims that the brand attempted to capitalize on her album’s success, Grande is suing for a whopping $10 million.
The suit also indicates that Grande and her lawyers asked Forever 21 to remove the content and it did not do so, which the complaint says meant it “improperly misappropriated and profited from Ms. Grande’s influence and star-power for approximately 14 weeks.”
Forever 21’s Instagram account appears to now be wiped of the offending images featured in the complaint, though there is still a post featuring clothing that appears to feature very similar looks to those in the “7 Rings” video and features the caption: “Put it in the bag!”
(Grande’s “7 Rings” includes the lyrics “I don’t mean to brag, but I be like, ‘Put it in the bag,’ yeah.”)
Representatives for Grande and Forever 21 did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
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