Houston judge signs order to halt sales of fake Eagles merchandise
Touring band, promoter win an injunction
A federal judge in Houston issued a preliminary injunction this week that bans the sale of bootlegged Eagles merchandise at concerts as the band’s 2018 North American tour continues.
The injunction, issued by U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore, benefits San Francisco-based Live Nation Merchandise, which serves as the exclusive seller of tour merchandise of the beloved rock ’n’ roll band.
According to court documents, Live Nation filed its first complaint June 7 in the Southern District of Texas requesting a temporary injunction in advance of Houston’s June 15 Eagles concert in Minute Maid Park.
Houston was the Eagles’ first stop on its 25city tour. Live Nation argued the bootlegged products violate the Eagles’ trademarks.
The judge approved the request the same day, but it expired on Monday. After a hearing on Monday, Gilmore issued this new ruling, which allows law enforcement to continue serving injunctions and seizing bootleg Eagles merchandise throughout the rest of this year’s U.S. tour.
The Eagles played a show in Arlington on Saturday, but will stage a show in Denver on Thursday — the first tour stop in which this new injunction will be in effect.
A member of the Eagles, Don Henley, was born in Gilmer, Texas, and currently lives in Dallas.
The ruling allows law enforcement to carry out the injunction by seizing and impounding unauthorized merchandise by bootleggers between three hours before and three hours after the concerts anywhere within a three-mile radius of the concert venues.
Los Angeles attorney Cara Burns, who is representing Live Nation, did not respond to requests for comment.
Currently there are no named defendants in the case because the bootleggers have “refused to identify themselves” so far when served with the injunction at concerts and “walk or run away” before the server of the injunction can give them a receipt,” according to a filing by Stephen Lewis, Live Nation’s merchandising tour manager.
Lewis said Live Nation has seized more than 200 infringing Eagles’ Tshirts since the court issued its first order.
“As has been my experience with past tours, it is expected that these defendant bootleggers will travel to each of the upcoming performances of the group,” Lewis said in a filing Friday. “Most of the infringing shirts were identical or nearly identical to each other and appear to have been produced in mass quantity.”
He said since many of the bootleggers sold their infringing merchandise before the show, they preempted Live Nation’s “opportunity to sell authorized merchandise within the venue.”
In an earlier filing, Lewis explained why the bootlegged products harm Live Nation, the Eagles and the band’s fans.
“The defendant bootleggers can drastically undersell us, a legitimate merchandiser, because, unlike plaintiff, defendant bootleggers have no obligation to pay the Group (Eagles) royalties and/or pay any part of their sales to the concert venue,” Lewis wrote.
“The fans of the group also suffer,” he continues. “Infringing merchandise is an inferior imitation which rarely lasts very long. The quality of the Tshirts and the designs or poor; many T-shirts appear to be seconds and the colors on the designs tend to ‘run’ or ‘bleed’ into each other. The fans are disappointed and, in their confusion as to the source of the infringing merchandise, blame the performers.”
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