Kitchen goods firm ordered to pay W100m for using actor Baek Il-seop's photo without consent for 30 years

A court has ordered a kitchenware manufacturer to pay actor Baek Il-seop 100 million won ($73,900) in damages for using his photo in product promotions without permission.

Judge Moon Hyeon-jeong of the Busan District Court's Western Branch ruled in favor of Baek in a damages suit he filed against kitchenware manufacturer Company A, ordering the firm to pay 100 million won, according to legal sources Thursday.

Company A had been affixing stickers printed with Baek's photo to pots and other kitchenware it manufactured and sold since the mid-1990s.

Baek's photo also appeared on the company's website and in product photos and descriptions on online shopping platforms. Some online retailers sold the products under names evoking the actor.

Baek's representatives sent a certified letter to Company A in September 2019, demanding it stop using the photo without authorization and warning of civil and criminal action. The company, however, continued to use his image as if he were its advertising model until it shut down in February.

Baek argued that the unauthorized use of his photo violated his right of publicity, portrait rights and name rights, and sought a total of 154.43 million won — comprising 124.43 million won in property damages and 30 million won in consolation damages.

Judge Moon declined to recognize the "right of publicity" Baek invoked as an independent property right, but found that Company A's conduct constituted an unlawful infringement of his portrait rights.

"There is no evidence whatsoever that an advertising model contract was concluded between the plaintiff and the defendant, or that the defendant paid the plaintiff any advertising fees," Moon said in the ruling. "Given that the plaintiff formally protested the unauthorized use of his likeness in 2019, it is also difficult to conclude that he had implicitly consented to the use of his photo free of charge."