The official merch supplier for Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band is pursuing a nationwide legal injunction to stop counterfeit sales during the Land of Hopes and Dreams American Tour – starting with the Boss’ hometown show in New Jersey.
Live Nation subsidiary Merch Traffic filed trademark infringement claims on Thursday (April 9) against a slew of anonymous bootleggers who’ve been dogging the Land of Hopes and Dreams trek. Such legal actions are a common strategy for authorized merch suppliers to crack down on knockoffs outside tour venues, by arming off-duty police officers with judicial orders to halt sales and seize the infringing products.
The lawsuit, obtained by Billboard, alleges that counterfeiters have been selling low-quality, underpriced knockoffs of official Springsteen t-shirts and hats outside arenas since opening night of the tour in Minneapolis on March 31. Merch Traffic is now suing in New Jersey federal court to get an injunction in effect for the famous Garden State native’s April 20 show at Newark’s Prudential Center.
Merch Traffic says this injunction should start with the New Jersey show, but it shouldn’t end after that night. Rather, the company’s lawyers want to keep seizing infringing merch through the end of Springsteen’s nationwide tour in May.
“Without the proposed seizure order, plaintiff will be forced to file separate civil actions throughout the United States at an estimated expense of well over $375,000 in legal fees and costs, imposing a great burden upon both plaintiff and the judicial resources of the federal courts,” reads the lawsuit.
A rep for Springsteen did not immediately return a request for comment on the matter on Friday (April 10).
Merch Traffic and other companies in its position frequently bring these types of legal actions to combat counterfeiters who crowd the parking lots during major artist tours. Injunctions were put in place for two prior Springsteen tours in 2016 and 2023, and similar lawsuits have been filed in the past year by the authorized merch sellers for Tate McRae, Dua Lipa and Benson Boone.
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