Tina Turner loses dispute over doppelganger before the Federal Court of Justice

Enlarge image

Dorothea "Coco" Fletcher with a poster of her show "Simply The Best - The Tina Turner Story"

Photo: Christophe Gateau / dpa

According to a press release, the Federal Court of Justice has rejected an appeal by singer Tina Turner.

Turner had sued a concert promoter over a poster.

The case is about a tribute show in which Dorothea "Coco" Fletcher plays the singer.

A photo of Fletcher can be seen on the advertising poster for the event, she tilts her head to the side.

Below it is "Simply The Best - The Tina Turner Story".

Turner's lawyers accused the organizer of seeing Fletcher too much like Turner.

The poster could give the impression that the superstar is on the stage himself.

Turner sued the promoter Cofo Entertainment for injunctive relief.

But the Federal Court of Justice decided otherwise: In this case, artistic freedom outweighed personal rights.

(Az. I ZR 2/21).

The court argued that the advertisement was not allowed if it appeared that Turner himself supported or worked on the show.

However, that cannot be inferred from the posters, they made no statement on this and were not ambiguous in this regard.

At the beginning of 2020, Turner was right before the Cologne Regional Court.

However, the Cologne Higher Regional Court reversed the verdict in the same year.

In its decision, it gave artistic freedom more weight than the right to one's own image and name.

kha/jpz/dpa