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August 17, 2021

Guns N’ Roses and Its Promo Distributor Combat Bootleggers

Lawsuits are being filed to stop the sale of illicit, unofficial branded merchandise as the hard rock band tours this summer.

By  Christopher Ruvo

Welcome to the Jungle, baby. Now cease and desist.

That’s the message rockers Guns N’ Roses and lawyers for the band’s promotional products distributor, California-based Global Merchandising Services (asi/208422), have for bootleggers trying to sell unlicensed GNR-branded products in cities on the band’s 2021 tour.

Indeed, the hard rock icons and their merch partner are looking to drizzle a little “November Rain” on the operations of the counterfeiters by filing lawsuits against the illicit swag-selling.

It’s all in an effort to discourage peddlers from snaring unofficial merch sales that reportedly cost the band tens of thousands of dollars or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in legitimate swag business per concert night.

Guns & Roses denim vest

This denim vest is one of Guns N’ Roses’ many official merch pieces. Available here.

“These bootleggers are, plainly and simply, parasites who wrongfully profit from the tremendous energies and reputations of performers,” Kenneth Feinswog, a lawyer for Global Merchandising Services, wrote in court papers that were filed in New Jersey a day before the band’s Aug. 5 concert at MetLife Stadium. Global Merchandising Services has exclusive license to sell GNR merchandise at U.S. concerts.

Jayne Durden, a vice president of law firm strategy at intellectual property management firm Anaqua in Boston, told Bloomberg that filing suits against street-level vendors is a less common tactic and many of the accused simply won’t show up for court. Nonetheless, the strategy can send a powerful message of deterrence. “This is Whac-A-Mole, but with a massive paddle that makes some noise,” said Durden.

Guns N’ Roses skyrocketed to fame in the late 1980s with its debut album “Appetite for Destruction,” which featured hits like “Welcome to the Jungle.” The band remains popular and is currently on a 23-date tour. For sure, GNR offers no shortage of merch for sale on its website – everything from T-shirts, vests, jackets, hoodies and even holiday sweaters, to face masks, beanies, belt buckles, puzzles and vinyl LPs.

For GNR and other artists, merch is big business.

“During the past 35 years of tremendous commercial growth of popular music, the public has not only purchased millions of records and concert tickets for entertainment, but has further sought to identify themselves with and declare allegiance to their favorite performers by purchasing various articles of merchandise,” Feinswog said in a court filing. “The aforementioned public statement of identification and allegiance to the performers and the souvenir value of the aforesaid merchandise is the reason why fans will pay more than $35 for a T-shirt displaying the performer’s name or likeness which might otherwise retail (without such name or likeness) for $4.”

Feinswog additionally noted that the merch bootleggers sell is of “inferior quality” and “deprives the artists, whose names, likenesses, symbols, logos and designs appear on the illicit infringing merchandise, of the earnings and credit that they (the artists) deserve from the investment of their capital and their creative energies into the development of their careers.”

Loudwire reported that Global Merchandising did the merch for the start of heavy metal band Slayer’s farewell tour and took similar legal action ahead of it. Global’s clients include well-known artists, such as Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Rob Zombie, Lewis Capaldi, Kylie, Lenny Kravitz, Little Mix, Ozzy Osbourne and more.