Clint Eastwood, an American actor, film director and producer, is suing three CBD companies, alleging they created articles and emails that falsely claimed he was endorsing their products and that he had his own CBD line.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles federal court says “Mr. Eastwood does not have, and never has had, any association with the manufacture, promotion, and/or sale of any CBD products.”
Named in the lawsuit are Sera Labs, Inc., and Greendios, both doing business in Los Angeles, and For Our Vets, LLC., from Maricopa County, Arizona.
“By this action, Mr. Eastwood seeks to hold accountable the persons and entities that wrongfully crafted this scheme, spread false and malicious statements of facts about him, and illegally profited off of his name and likeness,” the lawsuit says.
Eastwood’s attorneys say the fraudulent article is slightly modified to appear in different websites, sometimes to make it seem as though the story comes from a real news organization. But the lawsuit says that “other than the names of the products being advertised and sold, the verbiage of the fraudulent ‘article’ does not change substantially …”
The lawsuit says the articles contain references to Eastwood’s purported CBD product line, which he talked about during a made-up interview in the fake article. But, Eastwood’s attorneys say, the defendants’ CBD products are the ones actually being advertised and sold on the fake article.
The lawsuit alleges the defendants also sent emails “with the subject line, ‘Clint Eastwood Exposes Shocking Secret Today.’” The emails contained the fake article.
According to the lawsuit, Eastwood is seeking “an award of actual and compensatory damages in the millions of dollars,” among other things, as well as attorneys fees, and for a judge to order the companies to stop using his name and likeness to advertise their products.
