How Does a Mom Get Slapped With a $250,000 Judgment Over $380 of Homemade Luke Combs Merch? Experts Cite ‘Cottage Industry’ of Mass Counterfeit Suits in Illinois

variety.com:

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Credit country superstar Luke Combs for being a lot faster to get out ahead of a potential public-relations crisis than your average celebrity — to the point that he’s cleaning up messes before he’s had the chance to wipe the sleep out of his eyes.

Combs woke up early Wednesday morning learning of a TV news interview with a weeping woman in Florida, Nicol Harness, who’d been slapped with a $250,000 judgment by a federal court in Illinois, along with having thousands of dollars seized from her frozen Amazon seller’s account, because she had sold $380 of unauthorized Combs merch on the website. (The pricey infraction: 18 homemade drink tumblers bearing the singer’s name and likeness.) What further seized the public’s attention: Not only had Harness been hospitalized for a chronic heart condition when the suit was being decided, the convalescing mom never even knew she was being sued, having been served in an email that went to a junk folder on an AOL account she rarely checks, until she learned her webstore was out of commission and looked up the bad news.

After calling Harness to apologize, Combs had taken to social media within two and a half hours to say that he was “sick to my stomach” to learn he’d won such a huge judgment against such a humble individual, who professed to be a fan, after being assured his lawyers were only going after major international counterfeiters.

He said he would double the $5,500 his lawyers had seized from Harness’ Amazon account, would sell his own tumbler in his web store to raise money for her medical bills (it was online by the end of the day), and would invite her to meet him at a show.