Legal practitioner Bobby Banson has outlined circumstances under which artiste lookalikes can be sued by the original acts.

Bobby Banson made the statement on Joy FM’s Twitter Spaces on Wednesday, April 13, 2023 while talking about the implications of the tribute acts undertaking activities like the main musicians.

According to him, original artistes can sue the lookalikes with the unfair competition act or the common law of passing off. 

“The burden will be on the original artistes to prove that these lookalikes represented themselves as the A-list artistes,” he said.

He explained that if the original artistes can prove that the works of the wannabe acts have affected their brands, they can easily sue them.

Bobby Banson also said that when these lookalike take on the names of the main acts and add ‘Junior’ to them, they create the impression they have a relationship with the latter. 

“Those that add the Junior make the issue problematic because clearly you see that there is an intention as much as possible to represent themselves as having a relationship with the original artistes,” Bobby Banson said. 

He even went ahead to say that if the lookalike artistes decide to spell their names differently from the original artistes, they can be sued.

“The law against the passing off or unfair competition is not only in the optics, it’s also in the phonetics. Because when you mention KiDi, I will not know whether you meant Keedi or Qeedi. I will hear KiDi and the phonetics will be confused if it is the KiDi we know or the lookalike,” he said.

Lawyer Banson’s claim comes on the back of the recent trend of artiste lookalikes parading on social media in the country. 

There are lookalikes of celebrities such as Kuami Eugene, KiDi, King Promise, Shatta Wale, Medikal, Mr. Drew, Sarkodie, Black Sherif, among others.

Some of them are even seen in videos performing songs of the main artistes at events.

While a lot of people have spoken against the trend, other think there is no cause for alarm and that it is a common practice in Europe and the Americas.