Dua Lipa has filed a $15 million lawsuit against Samsung, and the details of the case are worth sitting with. The allegation is straightforward enough: Samsung placed her image on the packaging of its television products without her knowledge, consent or payment. But what makes this case interesting is what it reveals about the relationship between a public figure, the power of their public image and the commercial machinery that profits from it. With Dua Lipa being a famous singer, her image has value, which companies often pay celebrities a lot of money to appear in ads or endorse products.

According to the complaint, filed in the Central District of California, the photograph was taken backstage at the Austin City Limits Festival in 2024, and Lipa owns the copyright. When she discovered Samsung had been using it, she asked the company to stop. By her account, they ignored her. That refusal is what escalated things into a $15 million federal lawsuit covering copyright infringement, violation of California’s right of publicity statute, Lanham Act claims and trademark violations. With customers claiming that they would indeed buy a television because it had her image on it, given their love for her as an artist, the case illustrates that Samsung may have benefited from featuring her image on its products.

According to Variety, what the lawsuit captures, perhaps unintentionally, is how easily a person’s identity can be absorbed into a brand’s commercial interests without their participation, benefiting from a public image and reputation that took effort to create without recourse. Comments pulled from X in the complaint show consumers genuinely believing Lipa had endorsed the product; one wrote that they bought the TV simply because her face was on the box.

Lipa’s legal team describes her as “highly selective” with endorsements, which makes the alleged violation more pointed. This was not an ambiguity. It was her image, her likeness, her brand, used without consent. 

Dua Lipa is continuing to work with producer Danny L Harle, and their new song “Two Hearts”