Benson Boone Merch Knockoffs: Sony Company Sues Counterfeiters Amid American Heart Tour

Sony merch venture Ceremony of Roses has brought a lawsuit seeking to stop counterfeiters from selling knockoff Benson Boone goods outside the pop singer’s American Heart arena tour.

The claims come less than a week after Boone began a world tour supporting his sophomore album American Heart, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 this summer. Ceremony of Roses is the official merch retailer for Boone’s 30-date U.S. leg, which opened Aug. 22 and runs through Oct. 11.

Ceremony of Roses, which partnered with Sony via a strategic investment in 2022, claims in a Thursday (Aug. 28) federal court lawsuit that a hoard of anonymous bootleggers are already selling phony merch outside Boone’s tour stops and will continue to do so without court intervention.

“The infringing merchandise that defendants sell is generally of inferior quality,” write the company’s lawyers, Mark Bradford and Cara Burns. “The sale of such merchandise has injured and is likely to injure the reputation of the artist which has developed by virtue of his public performances and the reputation of the plaintiff for high quality authorized tour merchandise.”

Ceremony of Roses is seeking a legal injunction that would empower law enforcement to seize and impound counterfeit merch. The lawsuit includes a declaration from Ceremony of Roses’ touring vp Alan Sitchon, who says merch bootleggers have showed up for Boone’s shows this past week at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn; United Center in Chicago; Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio; and Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

“Individual bootleggers follow tours, or arrange to have local individuals sell the infringing merchandise for them,” writes Sitchon. “Many designs also have tour dates and venues on them, which also indicates that they will continue to go from venue to venue to sell their infringing merchandise.”

Boone’s reps did not immediately return a request for comment on the lawsuit.

The claims are nearly identical to another lawsuit filed this week by fellow merch retailer Merch Traffic. Represented by the same attorneys as Ceremony of Roses, Merch Traffic alleged on Tuesday (Aug. 26) that bootleggers are selling fake Tate McRae merch outside the singer’s Miss Possessive tour.

Such lawsuits are common in the live music industry. Official merch retailers have previously obtained court injunctions against knockoff sellers at the tours of artists including Harry Styles, Drake, Beyoncé, Post Malone, Billie Eilish and Justin Bieber.