Sofia Vergara Sues Beauty Firm for Illegally Using Her Name to Promote Their Products
"Modern Family" actress Sofia Vergara is not happy with Venus Concept.
According to the Colombian beauty, the company had exploited her name and image in promoting its products, using her likeness without her permission.
Legal documents obtained by People revealed that the 43-year-old accused the firm of using her image illegally after she tried the company's Legacy skin tightening massage in August 2014. She had posted a photo of herself undergoing the treatment then and posted it on her WhoSay account.
However, the company had used the snap without her permission in promoting its service, leading the actress to ask the firm to remove the image. Despite her "repeated demands" to take down the image, Venus Concept continued to use it. She then turned to legal means to get the matter fixed, hence the $15 million lawsuit.
"Vergara tried the Legacy treatment, but ultimately did not like it, finding that it was a waste of time and money with little in the way of any results," the court document read. "[Vergara] would not use it again, and certainly would not endorse it nor agree to appear in an international advertisement campaign to promote it."
According to the description provided on the page dedicated to the Venus Legacy treatment, the said procedure is a "revolutionary technology for non-surgical body contouring and skin tightening for the face, neck and body."
The company said that it used a pulsed magnetic field technology and fast, painless heating to various tissue depths to enhance results. It also promised "immediate and long term results" such as cellulite and wrinkle reduction, as well as skin tightening.
Considering the actress does not recommend the treatment and has not done it again, it appears that the results promised may be doubtful.
"Sofía personally prides herself on believing in what she sells and she talks about it genuinely," an insider revealed to Us Weekly. "For someone to just slap her face and image on something that she doesn't even like, she just feels like she's cheating her fans."
Vergara is not the only celebrity to sue for unauthorized use of her image.
Previously, Arnold Schwarzenegger sued a toy making company in the U.S. over a doll that resembled him. It was made and sold without his permission, which was required as his likeness was his property based on copyright laws, as per The Telegraph.
Further, Sandra Bullock, as well as Diane Keaton and Michelle Pfeiffer, sued certain firms in 2009 for using their likeness to sell TV sets and computer screens.
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