“Misleading” promotions
Lawsuit: Ronaldo should pay one billion dollars in damages
December 1, 2023, 10:15 a.m
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A gigantic lawsuit has been filed against soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. The plaintiffs are seeking $1 billion in damages from the 38-year-old for his “misleading” promotions for Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
Cristiano Ronaldo is in for gigantic trouble. A class action lawsuit has been filed in federal court in Florida against the soccer superstar, who is ending his great career with Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia. The lawsuit concerns promotions for non-fungible tokens (NFT) from the CR7 collection, which were issued by Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. The plaintiffs are demanding $1 billion in damages from the Portuguese. “CR7” refers to Ronaldo’s initials and shirt number and is used as a trademark for a range of products, from shoes to perfumes, which have made him one of the world’s richest athletes.
The claim is based on the fact that the 38-year-old’s advertising campaigns are “misleading” and “unlawful”. Ronaldo therefore used his celebrity status to entice people to make risky and costly investments. The athlete had repeatedly promoted his NFTs on social media. More than 600 million people follow the superstar on Instagram alone. Another point in the lawsuit: The Portuguese should have made transparent the amount of money he collects for his advertising campaigns. Neither Binance nor Ronaldo has yet issued a statement on the lawsuit filed. The cheapest NFTs from the collection cost $77 when it went on sale in November 2022 – a year later the value had fallen to around a dollar.
Just a few days ago it was revealed that, according to a media report, Binance would have to pay fines totaling $4.3 billion (almost four billion euros) in the USA. In addition, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao will vacate his position at the top of the digital currency exchange, reported the Wall Street Journal, citing informed circles. US authorities have tightened their approach to dealing with cryptocurrency platforms in recent years. The market is basically hardly regulated.