Goldenvoice Sues Urban Outfitters

While Urban Outfitters is already closely affiliated with Coachella in the minds of many festival attendees and critics, there is no formal relationship between the clothing company and Goldenvoice, and the promoter is suing the apparel shop for distributing clothes with the Coachella brand.

Zach Cordner/Invision/AP, file – Coachella Fashion
Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif.

The suit was filed in Central District Court of California March 15. In it, GV alleges that Urban Outfitters and subsidiary Free People distributed clothes with the Coachella name attached to them, even after receiving a cease-and-desist from the promoter.

While Urban Outfitters and Free People didn’t seem to be selling any clothes with the famous festival brand on the websites at press time, cursory research did show for “Coachella Pocket Tank” and “Coachella Mini Dress” pages on the Free People site had existed but were no longer functioning. Other sites were also selling Free People clothes of a “Bella Coachella” line.

GV reportedly has a licensing deal with UO competitor H&M for Coachella, which might be one reason why it is going after the retailer.

The Los Angeles festival Hoodchella changed its named to Noise In The Hood in 2016 after a GV lawsuit.

The Southern California promoter also claims UO unfairly skewed search results for the search term “Coachella.” At press time cursory research didn’t appear to show inflated results for Urban Outfitters or Free People.