Eric Clapton's management shares statement on bootleg CD lawsuit

The 55-year-old German woman listed a CD with a bootleg copy of one of Clapton's 1980s concert on eBay for €9.95 (£8.45), leading to the guitarist taking legal action, which has since resulted in him waiving the legal costs that a Düsseldorf court ordered the woman to pay last weekend, and a statement from Clapton's management.

She was ordered to pay a total of £2,889 for both legal parties involved in the bootleg CD case after claiming that her late husband bought the CD at a department store in the '80s.

According to The Guardian, when Clapton's German legal team reached out to the woman informing her of the illegal status of the CD, she asked them to not "contact me any further" and added, "feel free to file a lawsuit if you insist on the demands."

In the statement from Clapton's management, they wrote about how bootleg CDs are "rife" in Germany, and how over the past decade they've "successfully pursued thousands of bootleg cases under routine copyright procedures."

"It is not the intention to target individuals selling isolated CDs from their own collection, but rather the active bootleggers manufacturing unauthorised copies for sale," the statement continued. "In the case of an individual selling unauthorised items from a personal collection, if following receipt of a “cease and desist” letter the offending items are withdrawn, any costs would be minimal, or might be waived."

"Eric Clapton’s lawyers and management team (rather than Eric personally) identifies if an item offered for sale is illegal, and a declaration confirming that is signed, but thereafter Eric Clapton is not involved in any individual cases, and 95% of the cases are resolved before going to Court," the management wrote. "This case could have been disposed of quickly at minimal cost, but unfortunately in response to the German lawyers’ first standard letter, the individual’s reply included the line (translation): “feel free to file a lawsuit if you insist on the demands”. This triggered the next step in the standard legal procedures, and the Court then made the initial injunction order."

After writing about her decision and how the costs "would have been minimal" if she "complied with the initial letter", the management added that "it was clear the individual is not the type of person Eric Clapton, or his record company, wish to target, Eric Clapton decided not to take any further action and does not intend to collect the costs awarded to him by the Court. Also, he hopes the individual will not herself incur any further costs."