Dua Lipa’s attorneys say she deserves to move ahead with a lawsuit accusing Samsung of plastering her face on millions of TV boxes, telling a judge simply: “This case is straightforward.”
The “Levitating” superstar sued earlier this year, claiming the electronics giant infringed her likeness by using her photo on a commercial product without permission. But last month, Samsung asked the judge to dismiss the case, arguing customers hadn’t been tricked into thinking she endorsed a TV.
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In a response filing on Friday (Oct. 16), Lipa’s lawyers say that’s actually exactly what had happened: “Plaintiff’s image was valuable to Samsung precisely because consumers (and Samsung) understand what a celebrity’s face on a product means.”
“Plaintiff does not lend her name and likeness casually; she licenses them selectively, and for significant compensation, through partnerships with high-end, luxury brands,” her lawyers write. “Consumers accustomed to seeing plaintiff in paid brand partnerships reasonably concluded … that her appearance on Samsung’s packaging was another one.”
Samsung had also argued that Lipa couldn’t sue the company for using her face because she lives in England. But in the response filing, her lawyers said that argument was faulty, too.
“[Samsung] asks the court to accept a series of fallacious arguments that would leave plaintiff — and any other internationally recognized celebrity — with no remedy for the unauthorized commercial exploitation of her identity on American shelves simply because she is domiciled outside of the United States,” her lawyers write. “None of these arguments excuse Samsung’s theft.”
Lipa’s lawsuit, filed in May, claimed that her face had appeared on a “significant portion of the televisions sold by Samsung in the United States” during all of 2025 and 2026. And despite multiple cease-and-desist letters, she said the company refused to take action.
Samsung responded publicly days later, acknowledging the image but arguing it had been used “only after receiving explicit assurance from the content partner that permission had been secured.” Then last month, it argued the case must be thrown out of court, including because Lipa lives in England, which lacks protections for likeness rights.
In their response on Friday, however, Lipa’s lawyers say that’s not true. They say that English law would still give their client the right to sue, but that California’s far-more-robust likeness laws should apply to the dispute.
“Having unilaterally determined that English law controls (it does not), Samsung then argues that it gives Plaintiff no remedy (also incorrect),” Lipa’s lawyers write. “Samsung takes the position that it can appropriate any English celebrity’s likeness to sell its products in California and across the country, without consequence. Samsung’s argument fails at every step.”