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- Attract for the appearance: will Bezrukov be able to ban the sale of masks with his face
Attract for the appearance: will Bezrukov be able to ban the sale of masks with his face
Comic masks depicting Sergey Bezrukov's face became the reason for a lawsuit after the People's Artist discovered such masks on sale on marketplaces. He called the use of a person's image and name without his consent for commercial purposes unacceptable and is now asking for moral compensation from the seller. The amount of money an individual entrepreneur may face, as well as similar cases and the reactions of star colleagues, can be found in the Izvestia article.
Sergey Bezrukov went to court over masks
People's Artist of Russia Sergey Bezrukov, in an interview with Izvestia, for the first time commented on the trial due to comic carnival masks. He filed a lawsuit against the sole proprietor for selling such with his image. The actor called such a business unacceptable.
— Using a person's image and name without their consent for commercial purposes is unacceptable and illegal. And everyone has the right to protect this personal data. This is a difficult topic — protecting the image, name, and voice of people, especially famous ones. And especially nowadays— with the development of artificial intelligence technologies. We are all familiar with the topic of deepfakes — just the other day I showed a fake video with my face and voice on my social networks. These are all links in the same chain, one problem. And it needs to be solved," he explained his position to Izvestia.
The ads "Carnival masks on Sergey Bezrukov's face", which angered the artist, were posted by the seller on several marketplaces.
— The defendant uses his personal data without the consent of the plaintiff: first name, last name, image, therefore Sergey Bezrukov asks the court to prohibit the individual entrepreneur Kristina Sobolevskaya from distributing his personal data on the Internet, as well as to collect compensation for moral damage from the defendant, — said in a message published in the telegram channel "Courts of General Jurisdiction of the city of Moscow".
The cost of the mask starts from 300 rubles. The compensation may exceed this price tag many times over. And the court will most likely be on the side of the artist.
— There are many similar cases in the courts, and the practice on them has been formed. So, if the court finds a violation, it usually satisfies the requirement to prohibit further use of the image and awards compensation for moral damage in favor of the plaintiff. The amount of compensation depends on the circumstances of a particular case. As a rule, compensation ranges from several thousand to hundreds of thousands of rubles. Much depends on the nature and extent of the violation. In general, Russian courts are not inclined to award large sums for compensation for moral damage," Evgeny Rosenblat, head of the practice of complex litigation, lawyer, explained to Izvestia.
The amount of compensation can be significant, the expert added, if it is proved that the violations affected his personal life, reputation and the plaintiff really suffered moral suffering.
— Such violations are very common. It's just that public figures don't always get around to such violators," says lawyer Evgeny Rozenblat.
Perhaps that is why there are so many offers on different sites. You can be anyone — say, Nadezhda Kadysheva, Stas Mikhailov, Grigory Leps, or even one of the top officials of the state.
Let's beat it out for love
There are not only masks, but also T-shirts, pillows, dishes using images of famous personalities, as well as inscriptions referring to their work.
— To use a face for advertising purposes, at least you need to ask permission, because people are being misled by pseudo-entrepreneurs. They can be called scammers. These scammers are using our faces to sell things they don't have permission to do. The issue is that we cannot be responsible for what they offer people. These can be dangerous things. Therefore, I understand Sergey Bezrukov and am ready to join the general lawsuit and sue people for using our faces without our permission," producer Joseph Prigozhin said in an interview with Izvestia.
Igor Nikolaev
Sometimes, it is to resist attempts to illegally enrich themselves at the expense of their celebrity name, rather than out of personal business ambitions, that artists register trademarks referring to the fruits of their labors. There are cases in their favor. In August 2025, 25 thousand rubles were collected from the seller of the gift chocolate, whose label depicted a cat with a mustache and the recognizable "Let's drink to love!" Although the claims were 10 times higher.
The store, to which Sergey Bezrukov had a complaint, soon after the hype removed the mask with his image from the catalog. It was not possible to get a comment from the respondent.
The press service of Wildberries & Russ reported that sellers, accepting the offer, confirm the accuracy of information about the goods and their compliance with the norms of the legislation of the Russian Federation and the rules of the site. The marketplace, in turn, has the right to restrict the placement of goods if there are signs of non-compliance with the established requirements.
— The placement of products featuring actors and other public figures is also regulated by current legislation. In cases where authorized authorities record violations of copyright or related rights, the relevant cards may be temporarily restricted until the situation is resolved. In addition, the marketplace can proactively hide the cards if the copyright holder submits his appeal to Digital Arbitration and violations on the part of the seller are confirmed. At the moment, the site has not received regulatory orders regarding this category of goods, and the copyright holder has not contacted the site either, Izvestia was informed.
Ozon complies with legal requirements and sells only permitted products, the marketplace's press service said.
— In case of a decision on violation of certain norms by goods, we promptly hide them from the showcase, — they assured.
Meanwhile, masks with the image of Sergei Bezrukov are still being sold at venues that may not have received the news yet that some artists are not to be trifled with.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
