Dua Lipa Sues Samsung for $15 Million After Her Face Showed Up on TV Boxes
Dua Lipa found out Samsung was using her face to sell televisions. She asked them to stop. They said no. Now she's suing them for $15 million.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in the Central District of California. According to the complaint, Samsung put Lipa's image on the cardboard packaging of its TVs starting last year — a mass marketing campaign for a consumer product she knew nothing about, agreed to nothing about, and would not have agreed to if asked.
"Ms. Lipa's face was prominently used for a mass marketing campaign for a consumer product without her knowledge, without consideration, and as to which she had no say, control, or input whatsoever," the lawsuit states. "Ms. Lipa did not allow and would not have allowed this use."
When she found out and demanded they pull the image, the suit says Samsung was "dismissive and callous" and refused.
Where the Photo Came From
The image in question is a photo taken backstage at the Austin City Limits Festival in 2024. Lipa owns the copyright to the photo — which is a key part of the lawsuit. Samsung didn't just use her likeness. They used a photograph she owns without paying for it and without permission.
The lawsuit alleges copyright infringement, a violation of California's right of publicity statute, a federal Lanham Act claim, and trademark claims. That's a wide range of legal angles, and it signals this isn't going away quietly.
The Comments That Ended Up in the Lawsuit
The complaint actually quotes social media reactions from people who saw Lipa's face on the Samsung TV boxes — and some of those comments are almost too perfect for her legal team's purposes.
"I wasn't even planning on buying a TV but I saw the box so I decided to get it," one person wrote on X.
"I'd get that TV just because Dua Lipa is on it. That's how obsessed I am," wrote another.
A third wrote that if you need to sell something you should "just put a picture of Dua Lipa on it."
Those comments go directly to the heart of the lawsuit's argument — that Samsung profited from the false impression that Lipa endorsed the product. Whether or not Samsung intended to deceive anyone, real people were apparently buying TVs partly because they thought Dua Lipa was behind them.
Samsung's Response
Samsung broke its silence on May 11 with a statement that shifts the blame to a third party. The company says the image came from a content partner for its free streaming service Samsung TV Plus, and that the partner explicitly assured Samsung the image had been cleared for use — including on retail packaging.
"The image was used only after receiving explicit assurance from the content partner that permission had been secured," Samsung said. "Given this assurance, we deny any allegations of intentional misuse."
Samsung also said it has "great respect" for Lipa and is "open to a constructive resolution" with her team.
That last line is doing a lot of work. It reads like a company that has looked at those social media comments quoted in the lawsuit and decided a $15 million fight might not be the hill to die on.
Lipa is known for being selective about endorsements and has built what the lawsuit describes as a "premium brand" around that selectivity. Someone deciding to put her face on TV boxes without asking — and then refusing to remove it when she found out — is exactly the kind of thing that tends to end in court.
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