Manchester City striker Erling Haaland is suing Norwegian Air Shuttle, accusing the airline of using his likeness without permission. The legal action was announced on Thursday 1 October, and the newspaper Verdens Gang (VG) reported that a hearing had been set for Oslo District Court on 9 October.
Haaland’s lawyer, Thomas Hagen, told the French news agency AFP by email that the case concerns the airline’s unlawful use of the footballer’s distinctive features to promote plane tickets during the World Cup. Haaland drove Norway to the quarter-finals of the tournament this summer, the country’s first appearance at a major tournament since 1998, before they went out after a 2-1 defeat to England. That run made the team, and Haaland in particular, the focus of national attention during the summer.
AFP’s report did not confirm exactly which material is in dispute. VG reported that Norwegian had removed a photo montage from social media that showed one of its aircraft with a ponytail, the look that was Haaland’s trademark until he recently cut his hair. The post carried the caption “We’ve never looked more Norwegian”. The image no longer appears in the airline’s promotional material.
The airline’s response came quickly once the case became public. Norwegian confirmed that it had received a writ, which it said it found hard to understand. Spokeswoman Catharina Solli told AFP that the airline had backed the national team in the same way as the rest of the country, through a few spontaneous posts inspired by trends on social media. She called it “regrettable that this support has been met with legal action”.
Solli said the airline hoped for a reasonable dialogue so that it could keep supporting Norway’s sports heroes in future. Haaland’s side argues that the posts crossed the line from support into marketing, since, according to his lawyer, they were used in the promotion of plane tickets during the tournament. Norwegian’s position is that the content was a spontaneous show of national pride. The Local Norway’s report, based on AFP, did not say whether the two sides had held talks before the case was filed. The dispute now rests with the court in Oslo, where the question is whether a ponytail on an aircraft amounts to unlawful use of a famous footballer’s features.
