A Florida woman is on the hook for $250,000 after selling $380 worth of tumblers on Amazon that featured images of Luke Combs.
Nicol Harness spoke about the lawsuit to News Channel 8, saying that she was inspired to create the product after seeing Luke Combs in concert this summer. Harness, who runs an Amazon store that sells tumblers and t-shirts, told the outlet that she only sold 18 tumblers for $20 each resulting in only $380 worth of sales.
The entrepreneur was surprised to learn that an Illinois judge had ordered her to pay $250,000 in damages after she missed notification of the lawsuit due to hospitalization.
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Harness, who has congestive heart failure, was in the hospital when an email was sent from Combs’ attorney giving her 21 days to respond to the suit. But, she didn’t see the email until she did some digging in her inbox after Amazon froze her store. By the time the woman saw the message from Combs’ attorney, it was too late. 21 days had passed and a judge had already ruled in favor of the country artist to the tune of one quarter of a million dollars.
“It’s very stressful. I don’t have money to pay my bills,” Harness said. “I just want this resolved — I didn’t mean any harm to Luke Combs.
She added, “I quit selling the tumbler. I pulled it down.”
Harness was just one of several sellers sued by Luke Combs for selling counterfeit merchandise.
Most states require defendants to be notified of a lawsuit in person. But, Combs’ lawsuits were filed in Illinois where a new law allows notification by email.
“Frankly, to find out that in Illinois they are now allowing email service, this may be the test case for why that shouldn’t happen,” Attorney Weidner said. “I certainly encourage her to communicate with the court and tell her side of the story.”
Nicol Harness said that she has tried to reach Luke Combs without success.
“I would tell him I’m sorry, like I said I didn’t mean any harm. I’m a supporter of Luke Combs. I respect him. This is not something I meant to go wrong like this. I just want to get back to my day to day life,” Harness said.
In a post shared to social media Wednesday (December 13), Luke Combs responded to the lawsuit.
Luke shared that he reached out to Nicole and spoke to her on the phone. Not only did he drop the lawsuit, but he is sending her a check for $11,000 and creating his own tumbler. He committed to sending 100% of the profits from the tumbler to Harness to help her with medical bills and other needs.
Read all about Luke Combs’ response to the lawsuit HERE.
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