HYBE has initiated legal action to curb the sale of knockoff BTS merch during U.S. stops of the superstar K-pop group’s blockbuster ARIRANG world tour.
The lawsuit, filed on Friday (July 10) and obtained by Billboard, seeks a nationwide injunction that would allow the Korean music giant to seize bootleg merch sold around U.S. stadiums where BTS performs. Such court orders have become standard operating procedure for major tours in recent years.
HYBE alleges that since the ARIRANG world tour kicked off in April, bootleg merch sellers have flooded stadium grounds in Tampa, Fla., El Paso, Tex., Stanford, Calif., and Las Vegas. BTS is set to begin another U.S. leg on August 1 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., with additional stops in Foxborough, Mass., Baltimore, Arlington, Tex., Chicago and Los Angeles.
“Defendants have already sold and distributed unauthorized, infringing and counterfeit t-shirts, posters, and other merchandise during the current U.S. tour, and, absent injunctive relief, will continue to do so in the vicinity of the East Rutherford shows before, during, and after the performances, as well as at subsequent U.S. concerts on the tour,” write HYBE’s lawyers in the complaint, filed in New Jersey federal court ahead of the MetLife shows.
The lawsuit alleges bootleggers are hawking fake merch that’s “of the same general appearance” as HYBE’s official BTS products, but cheaper and of inferior quality. HYBE says this eats into its “controlled program of merchandising,” which includes online sales, pop-up stores and in-venue sales (in partnership with Amazon Music).
If it obtains an injunction, HYBE will have the right to seize, impound and destroy bootleg merch at all upcoming U.S. tour stops.
These petitions are a common strategy for cracking down on counterfeiters who crowd concert parking lots, and similar actions have been brought over the last several years by the official merch sellers for artists including Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, The Weeknd, the Jonas Brothers, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar, SZA and Olivia Rodrigo. The lawsuits tend to be initiated by merch companies, such as Bravado and Merch Traffic, that operate under exclusive licenses with artists to use their intellectual property. HYBE’s case is slightly different because it outright owns all rights to the BTS name and associated visuals. The Korean company previously secured injunctions to stop unlicensed merch sellers during BTS’ U.S. shows in 2019 and 2021.
The highly anticipated ARIRANG world tour follows BTS’ return from an extended hiatus and the release of the chart-topping comeback album ARIRANG in March. The trek began on April 9 in Goyang, South Korea, and it’s set to run through 2027 with stops throughout Asia, North America, Europe, South America and Australia.
The tour topped the Billboard Boxscore chart in both April and May, grossing a combined $204 million over the two months. In May, BTS set a record for the biggest monthly gross by a group since the chart began in 2019, surpassing The Rolling Stones.
