Rihanna wins against Topshop

The English High Court held a decision in favour of pop star Rihanna against the British retailer Topshop. In particular Topshop was found guilty for having used an unauthorized image of her on some of its T-shirts. The image that Topshop acquired from a photographer was similar to photos taken of Rihanna during filming of a music video, which ended up being included in one of her CDs. In the Court’s opinion the sales were damaging to her “goodwill” and had an adverse effect on her reputation in the “fashion sphere”. The Judge also stated that, in any case, there is no general right by a famous person to control the reproduction of their image. Finally, as customers had believed it was an approved image, the High Court ruled that Topshop was guilty of passing off.


08/01/2013 | Unfair competition