Country artist Luke Combs is making amends after his team sued a fan selling homemade drink tumblers with his image on them.
After a judge ordered Nicol Harness to pay the singer $250,000 for copyright infringement, the woman from Pinellas, Florida, came forward with her story to Tampa Bay’s local NBC affiliate, WFLA.
Combs addressed the lawsuit in an Instagram video on Wednesday morning, where he told followers he was shocked and disgusted to learn about Harness’ ordeal through the news, and not from his team.
“I was completely and utterly unaware of this,” he explained, while noting that he does work with a company who is supposed to take on counterfeiters making “millions and millions of dollars” from using his likeness illegally.
“Apparently this woman, Nicol, has gotten wrapped up into that and that makes me absolutely sick to my stomach,” the “Hurricane” artist went on.
Harness ― who lives with congestive heart failure and makes money selling her self-made merch on Amazon ― sold 18 Combs tumblers at $20 a piece, earning her a gross $380.
She told WFLA she didn’t find out about the $250,000 judgement until she discovered she was unable to withdraw money from her Amazon seller account, where she still has $5,500 of funds in limbo.
Combs said he had reached out to Harness to make things right, and that he would be sending her $11,000 to make sure she “doesn’t have anything to worry about.”
“It makes me sick, honestly, that this would happen, especially at the holidays, I can’t imagine being in her shoes,” he told fans.
Combs said he offered to fly Harness and her family out to meet him, so he could apologize in person.
He also told fans he’d be selling his own official beverage tumbler online with plans to donate the proceeds to Harness’ medical expenses.
“She was never supposed to be involved in any of this, no fan should ever have to be involved in anything like this,” he said.
