Former Olympian Mark Spitz Files Suit Over Use Of Image In Ad
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Spitz Claims Medco Health Solutions Used His
Likeness In Commercial After Contract Expired |
Former U.S. Gold Medal-winning swimmer Mark Spitz has sued New Jersey-based Medco Health Solutions Inc. for more than $300,000, claiming that the pharmacy benefits manager "used his likeness to promote its services for longer than contracted," according to Hugh Morley of the Bergen RECORD. Spitz said that Medco "used his name and image in a television commercial for 10 months after the contract expired." The suit claims that Spitz signed a deal in July '07 to endorse Medco, and that he "signed another agreement in September 2008 to make the television commercial" promoting the company. The lawsuit claims that deal ended in December '08, and the suit alleges that Medco, Amplify Sports & Entertainment (ASE) and ASE President Michael Neuman "'secretly fabricated' a new version of the agreement, changing the expiration date to December 2009, without Spitz knowing." Spitz seeks "compensation and punitive damages," and the suit also "asks the court to require the defendants to make restitution to Spitz of 'all money or property' acquired as a result of the allegedly unlawful [use] of his name and image" (Bergen RECORD, 3/10).
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