Kim Kardashian is suing photo-editing app iHandy for $10 million dollars after the company used one of her selfies from 2017 to promote the brand’s services.
The photo that sparked the lawsuit was posted on October 31, 2017. The KKW Beauty founder posted the pic to promote her beauty line with the caption, “Love this glam! @makeupbymario used the @kkwbeauty dark & light Powder Contour & Highlight kits for my eyeshadow! KKWbeauty.com.”
According to court documents obtained by Women’s Wear Daily, the company “copied, cropped, manipulated and exploited” her selfie for their benefit.
The defendant claimed to have no idea who Kardashian is, despite the fact that the photo was taken from her Instagram page with 150 million followers. As reported by TMZ, her lawyer said, “Defendant claims, absurdly, as its alleged defense … that they didn’t know that the unlicensed, unauthorized photo they knowingly stole and misappropriated was that of [Kim Kardashian West] … one of the most famous and recognizable women in the world.”
This isn’t the Skims founder’s first lawsuit. In July, she won $2.7 million dollars in damages after clothing company Misguided used her photo and name to promote the brand on social media without permission.
And in February of 2017, the star debuted a nearly naked vintage Mugler dress. Just days later, she noticed that fast-fashion companies were ripping off the design. On her Instagram Story, she wrote, “Only two days ago, I was privileged to wear a one-of-a-kind vintage Mugler dress and in less than 24 hours it was knocked off and thrown up on a site — but it’s [even] not for sale [yet].”
She continued, “You have to sign up for a waitlist because the dress hasn’t even been made to sell yet. This is a way to get people to sign up for their mailing list and make people believe there is some kind of relationship between me and this fashion site. There is not.”
