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Benson Boone at the Spotify-hosted Fireworks & Rollerblades After Dark event. Photo Credit: Happy Monday for Spotify
It’s time for merchandise “bootleggers” to pay for their alleged trademark infringement – at least according to Sony Music’s Ceremony of Roses, which is taking legal action against possible knockoff-merch peddlers.
Ceremony of Roses submitted one such proactive complaint to a New York federal court yesterday, listing as defendants as-yet-unnamed John Doe merchandise bootleggers. Taking a step back for a moment, the LA-based business largely functions in the background and chiefly makes headlines when spearheading litigation.
In any event, the self-described “leading boutique merchandising company” set sail in 2017 and has been operating under the Sony Music banner since 2022. (The SME subsidiary looks to be expanding as well; earlier this month, it moved to bring on a director in Singapore.)
Returning to the mentioned action, then, Ceremony of Roses made clear that the litigation – which will be updated with actual names – aims to crack down on individuals accused of selling infringing merch outside concerts.
“Defendants,” the concise complaint reads, “also known as ‘Bootleggers,’ will sell and distribute unauthorized, infringing T-shirts, jerseys, caps and/or other merchandise bearing any or all of the Artist’s Trademarks…in the vicinity of the Concert, before, during and after his performance, and at subsequent concerts during the Tour. The Tour has just begun and so have Defendants’ infringing activities.”
Here, said tour refers to Benson Boone’s American Heart World Tour, which kicked off on August 22nd but won’t reach New York until September 5th. Meanwhile, North American dates are scheduled into mid-October, with international stops booked well into November.
In other words, the suit looks to be a straightforward warning shot for potential knockoff-merch sellers. But can companies ever truly beat counterfeit items?
The answer here depends on one’s definition of “beat,” but logic and evidence point to an uphill battle. At the top level, a quick search on a popular ecommerce website will turn up a number of listings for seemingly third-party Benson Boone products with comparatively affordable prices.
As for unauthorized merch sales outside concerts themselves, much of the demand (and the opportunity for “bootleggers”) presumably stems from official products’ sky-high prices. On X, several “Booners” are lamenting the astronomical price tags associated with American Heart Tour merch, including $125 a pop for sweatshirts, per videos and the artist’s website.
“Okay Benson Boone’s American Heart Merch T Shirts look nice,” one superfan weighed in. “I kinda want the white shirt but it could stain easily. And then I’m torn between the 2 black shirts bc they’re very similar. Idk which to buy. Also his hoodies are $125 which is insane.”
“$125 for a hoodie is actually highway robbery wtf,” a different Boone diehard echoed.
Needless to say, the ultimate goal here is to make money. But with genuine merch probably being of a higher quality (and therefore lasting longer) than knockoff items, lowering prices may simultaneously discourage bootleggers, improve sales volumes, render costly trademark suits unnecessary, and please fans. The latter are, of course, the backbone of any successful tour and music career – so keeping them happy isn’t a bad idea.
Lastly, many alleged knock-off merch sellers move products out of cardboard boxes and pull carts as opposed to masterminding elaborate counterfeiting operations; hauling them into court and seeing litigation through is a process. There’s also the adjacent possibility of inadvertently igniting a media firestorm when targeting alleged bootleggers, some of whom double as passionate supporters.
