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A Florida woman trying to make ends meet by selling drink tumblers online was slapped with a $250,000 fine for using the likeness of country star Luke Combs, but as soon as Combs heard the news, he vowed to make things right.
Earlier this week, WFLA News Channel 8 out of Tampa interviewed the woman, Nicol Harness, who said she was completely unaware of the issue, as the lawsuit was emailed to her and landed in her spam folder.
Harness said she only learned of the lawsuit when she received a notice about the $250,000 fine just days after returning home from a stay in the hospital for congestive heart failure.
She tearfully told the news station:
“It’s very stressful. I don’t have money to pay my bills."
“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.”
Not only was Harness expected to pay the quarter-million dollar fine, but Amazon has also frozen all of the proceeds from her storefront where she sells her merchandise following the judgement.
You can learn more about the lawsuit below.
Pinellas Park woman sold 18 Luke Combs- themed tumblers, now owes the star $250,000 in federal lawsuyoutu.be
On Wednesday, Combs took to social media, telling his followers he was “sick to my stomach” after learning he had won a $250,000 judgement against a woman who had made only $380 off of 18 tumblers featuring his image.
The singer said he was completely unaware of the lawsuit, although he did acknowledge the team "has a company" that goes after businesses that make "millions and millions of dollars" off of counterfeit products.
In a video captioned, "Lawsuit response," Combs began:
“What’s up guys? Luke here. It’s 7:27 a.m. here in Tennessee. I woke up at 5 a.m. to use the restroom and first thing I saw was this [news story about] a woman that’s being sued by me for $250,000."
"I spent the last two hours trying to make this right, trying to figure out what’s going on, because I was completely and utterly unaware of this. … Firstly, my manager reached out to this news station that ran this piece to try to get some info…”
Combs then revealed that he “was able to get Nicol’s phone number."
"I spoke to her this morning. She told me that, you know, she was absolutely shocked by this."
"I’m so apologetic. Talking to her… It makes me sick, honestly, that this would happen, especially at the holidays. I can’t imagine being in her shoes."
The singer told his fans he was going to double the money frozen by Amazon.
"She told me there’s $5,500 locked up in her Amazon account. I’m gonna double that, send her $11,000 today, just so she doesn’t have anything to worry about. She was never supposed to be involved in anything like this. No fan should ever have to be involved in anything like this."
He said he will sell his own tumblers, with the proceeds going to help Harness and her family.
“And she got in trouble, apparently, for making tumblers, so I’m gonna make my own tumbler that’s gonna go up today. I’ll keep you posted on that, but all that money is gonna go to Nicol and her family, to try to help with her medical bills. Hopefully that can help her out."
You can watch his video below.
People on social media were blown away by Combs' generosity.
@lukecombs @WFLA Love your music ,but never really followed you. What you just did is honorable. And now I\xe2\x80\x99m a fan. And will try to support you in anyway I can. Thank you for being a stand up guy. It gives me hope that there is still good people in this world. Please let us know more about the\xe2\x80\xa6— (@)
@lukecombs @WFLA He could've ignored this and said oh well but he didn't it shows hes an actual person with a heart wrong is wrong and he's trying to make a bad deal better! Over tumblers? Well several etsy sellers should be sued as well than. I just bought one actually \xf0\x9f\xa4\xb7\xf0\x9f\x8f\xbc\xe2\x80\x8d\xe2\x99\x80\xef\xb8\x8f— (@)
Combs apologized once again.
“Again, this is unbelievable. I was completely shocked when I saw this this morning. It makes me sick."
"This is not something that I would ever do. This is not the kind of person I am. I’m not greedy in any way, shape or form."
"Money is the last thing on my mind — I promise you guys that. And I invited Nicol and her family out to a show this year so I could give her a hug and say sorry in person."
He finished his video:
"[I] wanted to clear that up, man, because it makes me sick for anybody to be thinking that I’m this kind of person, because I’m the farthest thing from it."
"So, love you guys and I’ll keep you posted.”