Lipa's team frames this as a straightforward intellectual property case—the unauthorized commercial exploitation of her image. The lawsuit emphasizes she's worked with luxury powerhouses like Chanel, Tiffany & Co., and Porsche, positioning Samsung's free ride as beneath her brand standards.
Insiders say Lipa's people caught wind of the boxes circulating online months before filing, giving Samsung ample opportunity to pull them quietly. When they didn't, this became a message: nobody uses Dua's face without writing a check. The fan buzz around the 'Dua Lipa TV Box' only made it worse—Samsung basically got free promotion from her likeness.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in California district court seeking no less than $15 million for copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and right of publicity violations. The unauthorized image was taken backstage at the 2024 Austin City Limits Festival before her October performance; Lipa discovered Samsung's use in June 2025.
Samsung played themselves here—you don't slap a global pop star's face on your boxes without cutting a check first. This $15 million ask isn't just about compensation; it's about making an example of a tech giant that thought it could get away with treating her image like free advertising.
Dua Lipa is done playing nice with Samsung. The Levitating singer filed a lawsuit Friday against Samsung Electronics in a California district court, seeking at least $15 million after discovering the electronics company used her likeness on television boxes without so much as a phone call. According to the complaint obtained by Rolling Stone, Samsung slapped a copyrighted backstage photo of Lipa—taken before her performance at the 2024 Austin City Limits Festival—on cardboard packaging for televisions featuring Samsung TV Plus, specifically promoting the Xite Hits channel.
Recognizing Ms. Lipa's notoriety and goodwill, Samsung used a copyrighted image of Ms. Lipa without authority or license and prominently featured it on the front of cardboard boxes containing Samsung manufactured televisions for retail sale, the lawsuit states.
The filing accuses Samsung of copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and violation of her right of publicity—a trifecta of legal violations that could make this case very expensive for the South Korean tech giant. Here's where it gets interesting: Lipa has collaborated with Porsche, Apple, Chanel, Tiffany & Co., and many other high luxury and fashion houses. Samsung was never on that list.
Despite having zero promotional deal with the electronics company, fans began commenting about the Dua Lipa TV Box phenomenon on social media after she discovered the unauthorized use in June 2025. One fan noted they'd get that TV just because Dua is on it; another pointed out if you need anything selling, just put a picture of Dua Lipa on it. Lipa's legal team says Samsung was dismissive and callous when confronted with repeated demands to cease and desist.
Samsung's arrogance in refusing to stop its infringement confirms its conscious disregard of Ms. Lipa's intellectual property and personal identity rights, intent on monetizing its products for its own benefit by capitalizing on the implied false association with Ms. Lipa as a sponsor of Samsung's mass-marketed television sets, the lawsuit claims.
The pop star is now asking for no less than $15 million in damages—and given how blatantly Samsung doubled down rather than pull the boxes when caught—this case could get uglier before it ever settles. The lawsuit paints Samsung as calculating and willfully ignorant: they mass-manufactured, distributed, marketed, and sold televisions across the United States with Lipa's face on the box. That's not an accident—that's a business decision made by people who assumed they'd never have to answer for it.
