A Florida woman was shocked this week when she found out that $380 in sales from her online shop could end up costing her $250,000.
Nicol Harness of Pinellas Park, Florida is a big fan of multi-award-winning country singer Luke Combs, so much so that she decided to sell some Combs-themed drink tumblers online. Harness told Tampa’s local NBC outlet WFLA that she suffers from congestive heart failure which prevents her from working a traditional job. Instead, she makes income by selling homemade tumblers and T-shirts through Amazon.
After attending a concert of Combs' over the summer, she decided to start selling the tumblers, which featured images of the singer, his name and other decals related to his work. She sold 18 tumblers through the shop for a total of $380 in earnings. She bought the artwork online, she told WFLA, and used it to create the tumblers.
Combs' legal team seemingly took issue with these earnings, however, and sent Harness an email regarding a lawsuit she had now been made a part of, which ended up filtered by her junk mail folder.
It was only when she returned home from a hospital stay and tried to access the funds she had earned through Amazon that she discovered there was a problem. She was unable to get to her money, she said, and tried first to resolve the issue via Amazon. When they were unable to help, she finally discovered the email in her junk inbox.
The email, sent by Comb's attorney in October, notified her and several others of the filing in an Illinois federal court over copyright and the sale of counterfeit merchandise. Harness told WFLA that the email gave her 21 days to respond, but that timeframe had long since passed by the time she laid eyes on the notice.
By then, the case had been closed and a judgment had been issued demanding each defendant pay Combs $250,000 for the violations.
“It’s very stressful. I don’t have money to pay my bills,” Harness told WFLA “I just want this resolved. I didn’t mean any harm to Luke Combs. I quit selling the tumbler. I pulled it down. I just don’t understand.”
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As it turns out, Harness was not the only one who was unaware of the lawsuit.
Combs himself claimed to have no knowledge of this proceeding and took to Instagram this morning to respond to the situation, which he said he only learned about after reading the WFLA story.
"I was completely and utterly unaware of this," Combs said in the video posted to his page. He explained that he does have dealings with a company that is tasked with legally going after large corporations that "make millions and millions of dollars" off of counterfeit merch, but the team was never meant to go after individuals or fans like Harness.
"That makes me absolutely sick to my stomach," Combs continued, saying he had managed to find Harness' phone number and had already called her to apologize and clear the air. "It makes me sick, honestly, that this would happen, especially at the holidays, I can't imagine being in her shoes," he said.
To make it right, he told his fans he would be giving money to Harness that very same day as opposed to taking it out of her pockets. He decided to double the $5,500 she said was locked up in her Amazon account and send her $11,000 so she "doesn't have anything to worry about."
"She was never supposed to be involved in any of this, no fan should ever have to be involved in anything like this," he said. Combs also said he would be putting up an official drink tumbler on his website today and plans to donate all of the proceeds to Harness' family to help with medical bills and other needs.
He also said he would be flying Harness and her family out to a show to hug her and apologize in person.
The Instagram post has received more than 10,000 comments in just five hours, the vast majority of which are praising Combs for what his fans call a kind action and an example of a "class act."
USA TODAY has reached out to Harness and Combs' team for comment.
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Harness' story may have come as a shock both to her and Combs, but situations like these have become increasingly common online.
Shopping sites like Amazon and Etsy that allow individuals to list and sell items through a digital storefront are rife with knock-offs, bootlegs and the unauthorized use of intellectual property. Everything from stickers and T-shirts to drinkware and home decor can be found endowed with images of almost any celebrity, movie, TV show or video game.
A quick search for "Luke Combs" on Etsy brings up pages and pages of results from hundreds of different shops. These range from T-shirts and sweatshirts with Combs' name and image on them to wall art with logos and song references. There are even tumblers and other housewares not dissimilar to what Harness had been selling.
According to Etsy's seller handbook, any items determined to violate copyright will be removed from their site automatically. However, for this to happen, the intellectual property owners need to report the infringement to Etsy and prove they are the authorized owners of the property. If they are, the seller will receive an automated IP infringement notice after their product listing is removed.
In some cases, an entire shop may be removed, especially after repeat offenses.
While this has been an ongoing issue for Etsy, a newer player in the space has grappled with the pitfalls of maintaining a storefront platform on which copyright quickly becomes a seller issue.
Short-form video app TikTok waded into the e-commerce space this year, launching the TikTok shop in September, allowing people to buy and sell products directly through the app.
Many creators quickly took to advertising and selling all kinds of items through the shop but the e-commerce platform has not gone without controversy in the short few months of its life thus far.
In October, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) issued a warning about scams and "faulty and fake" products many were receiving from the shop. Many users and creators also began to complain about the operations of the platform, saying they felt their timelines had been entirely dominated by product shilling. Those trying to maintain and build an audience on the app also said they felt pressure to join the shop to stay afloat.
Many of the products sold on the shop were called out for featuring copyrighted materials, characters and intellectual property that had not been properly licensed. Everything from knock-off designer bags and clothes to unlicensed Disney merch soon proliferated almost every corner of the platform.
By October, Indonesia had banned the e-commerce function from the country. Then, last month, hundreds of users woke up to find their shops completely shut down by the app. Any accounts determined by TikTok to be selling or advertising copyrighted items were issued a permanent ban with no clear way to appeal. This not only shut down their ability to sell or open another selling account but also to access the money they had already made.
