CBD Company Ordered to Pay Clint Eastwood $6.1M

Company falsely implied he endorsed products
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 4, 2021 3:05 PM CDT
CBD Company Ordered to Pay Clint Eastwood $6.1M
This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Clint Eastwood in a scene from "Cry Macho."   (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

A federal judge in California made Clint Eastwood's day on Friday with a ruling in a lawsuit against a CBD company. The judge awarded Eastwood and Garrapata, a company he runs that owns the rights to his likeness, $6.1 million in a ruling against a Lithuanian company that used his name and image to suggest that he endorsed their cannabis products, the New York Times reports. The judge issued a default judgment after the company, Mediatonas UAB, failed to respond to a March summons. Eastwood filed lawsuits last year against CBD companies he said had illegally tried to profit off his name and likeness, reports TMZ.

Eastwood's lawsuit accused the company of producing a fake online article—with a real photo of Eastwood from a Today show interview—including an interview in which he praised its CBD products. The judge awarded Eastwood and Garrapata $6 million for the unauthorized use of his name and likeness, plus almost $100,000 in legal fees. He did not, however, grant the lawsuit's defamation claim. "It requires additional context to understand what CBD products are and why a person like Clint Eastwood would not endorse a marijuana-based product," he wrote.

Eastwood's lawyers praised the ruling, which bans the company from ever using the 91-year-old actor's name or image again. "In pursuing this case, and obtaining this judgment, Mr. Eastwood has again demonstrated a willingness to confront wrongdoing and hold accountable those who try to illegally profit off his name, likeness, and goodwill," attorney Jordan Susman said in a statement, per Fox Business. (More Clint Eastwood stories.)

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