Drake's currently on the road for one of the biggest tours of the year, "Aubrey & The Three Migos" tour with Migos. Although there were a few delays and cancellations, Drake and Migos have been trekking throughout North America. Like most major tours, you could only expect bootleggers in front of the venue trying to sell knock-off merchandise for the artist. However, anyone who tries to push bootleg Drake merch might have to face some repercussions.
Drake and Live Nation are cracking down on bootleg merch vendors, The Blast reports. A judge has signed off on a motion filed by Live Nation that gives police the right to confiscate bootleg merchandise outside of concert venues on the "Aubrey & The Three Migos" tour.
"Typically, a ‘core’ group of bootleggers will follow a successful concert tour of a performer having the stature of the Artist. The pattern is for the same bootleggers or their merchandise to reappear from one venue to the next. Typically, prior to a concert, these defendants appear, offering for sale infringing, inferior merchandise, particularly T-shirts, bearing the names and likenesses of the appearing performer.” Live Nation explained in their request. “This illegal merchandise seriously impairs sales of authentic merchandise within the arenas, particularly because most of the infringing merchandise is sold prior to the concert. Thus, each of the unauthorized sales represents a lost sale and lost income to the Plaintiff.”
Live Nation claims that bootleggers keep their identity and intentions on the low until right before the show starts. They also gave pictures of bootleg vendors selling knock-off merch outside of the venues as part of their request. However, they said that bootleggers typically refuse to give their identity or they give fake names and addresses.
The order the judge signed off on now gives law enforcement the right to seize all merchandise and make the bootlegger pay a $5K bond.
