Nicol Harness of Pinellas Park, Florida is a big fan of multi-award-winning country singer Luke Combs, so much so that she decided to sell some Combs-themed drink tumblers online. Harness told Tampa’s local NBC outlet WFLA that she suffers from congestive heart failure which prevents her from working a traditional job. Instead, she makes income by selling homemade tumblers and T-shirts through Amazon.
A Florida woman was shocked this week when she found out that $380 in sales from her online shop could end up costing her $250,000.
After attending a concert of Combs’ over the summer, she decided to start selling the tumblers, which featured images of the singer, his name and other decals related to his work. She sold 18 tumblers through the shop for a total of $380 in earnings. She bought the artwork online, she told WFLA, and used it to create the tumblers.
Combs’ legal team seemingly took issue with these earnings, however, and sent Harness an email regarding a lawsuit she had now been made a part of, which ended up filtered by her junk mail folder.
It was only when she returned home from a hospital stay and tried to access the funds she had earned through Amazon that she discovered there was a problem. She was unable to get to her money, she said, and tried first to resolve the issue via Amazon. When they were unable to help, she finally discovered the email in her junk inbox.
The email, sent by Comb’s attorney in October, notified her and several others of the filing in an Illinois federal court over copyright and the sale of counterfeit merchandise. Harness told WFLA that the email gave her 21 days to respond, but that timeframe had long since passed by the time she laid eyes on the notice.
By then, the case had been closed and a judgment had been issued demanding each defendant pay Combs $250,000 for the violations.
“It’s very stressful. I don’t have money to pay my bills,” Harness told WFLA “I just want this resolved. I didn’t mean any harm to Luke Combs. I quit selling the tumbler. I pulled it down. I just don’t understand.”
Luke Combs responds to tumbler lawsuit controversy
As it turns out, Harness was not the only one who was unaware of the lawsuit.
Combs himself claimed to have no knowledge of this proceeding and took to Instagram this morning to respond to the situation, which he said he only learned about after reading the WFLA story.
Luke Combs has since reached out to the fan in question.
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“I was completely and utterly unaware of this,” Combs said in the video posted to his page. He explained that he does have dealings with a company that is tasked with legally going after large corporations that “make millions and millions of dollars” off of counterfeit merch, but the team was never meant to go after individuals or fans like Harness.
“That makes me absolutely sick to my stomach,” Combs continued, saying he had managed to find Harness’ phone number and had already called her to apologize and clear the air. “It makes me sick, honestly, that this would happen, especially at the holidays, I can’t imagine being in her shoes,” he said.
To make it right, he told his fans he would be giving money to Harness that very same day as opposed to taking it out of her pockets. He decided to double the $5,500 she said was locked up in her Amazon account and send her $11,000 so she “doesn’t have anything to worry about.”
“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. Combs also said he would be putting up an official drink tumbler on his website today and plans to donate all of the proceeds to Harness’ family to help with medical bills and other needs.
He also said he would be flying Harness and her family out to a show to hug her and apologize in person.
The Instagram post has received more than 10,000 comments in just five hours, the vast majority of which are praising Combs for what his fans call a kind action and an example of a “class act.”
