The English indie-pop group Easy Life is being sued by EasyGroup, the parent company of the low-cost airline EasyJet, because of their band name. That’s what the music group revealed in a message last week, as the BBC reported.
Easy Life said they’re being forced to change their band name due to its similarity to the airline and its overarching brand, or else fight a costly and likely insurmountable legal battle.
In addition to EasyJet, EasyGroup operates several business arms designated by the “easy” prefix, including EasyBus, EasyCoffee and EasyGym. In a brief, the company claimed consumers could incorrectly conflate the band Easy Life with the EasyGroup brands. But the music group asserted it has likely never harmed EasyGroup’s business with their band name. Still, a tour poster and T-shirt for EasyLife styled their band name in the same orange color and font as EasyJet’s branding.
“never imagined having to do this but we’ve no choice but to address the situation we find ourselves in,” Easy Life writes in a post. “as some of you have already discovered, we are being sued.”
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The band further explains, “easy jet are suing us for being called easy life. they’re forcing us to change our name or take up a costly legal battle which we could never afford. we’ve worked hard to establish our brand and i’m certain in no way have we ever affected their business.”
Easy Life tour poster
Easy Life adds that they “don’t really know what else to say” but “will keep [fans] updated.”
From BBC:
In its claim lodged with the High Court, easyGroup said the band had promoted their Life’s a beach tour, in 2021 and 2022, with a poster showing a plane in the style of easyJet’s orange livery but substituting the airline’s name with its own.
The company also said the band had produced T-shirts bearing their name in the firm’s branded style and their website infringed its trademark with its similarity to easyJet branding.
The document stated: ‘By wrongly creating a link with the claimant, the defendant benefits from an association with that positive view and vast brand recognition, regardless of whether the link was intended to be provocative or humorous.’
It said the band was ‘riding on the coat tails of the valuable reputation’ of the company’s brand, adding it was ‘not presently able to estimate the financial value of this claim, but considers that it will be substantial.’
Easy Life’s second album, Maybe in Another Life, emerged this month via Island Records. Hear a song from the effort below.
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Easy Life, “Fortune Cookie”
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