Ice Cube has filed a lawsuit against stock trading app Robinhood for using an image of him without his permission.
According to Bloomberg Law, the Friday actor filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Wednesday (March 31) alleging that Robinhood and Robinhood Financial LLC used his image without consent “to promote Robinhood’s horrible products and services” for a March 8 blog post on Robinhood Snacks, a finance newsletter.
The post — titled “Why are tech stocks failing?” — featured an image from the 2007 movie Are We Done Yet?, which starred Cube. The site captioned the image, “Correct yourself, before you wreck yourself,” a reference to the rapper’s 90s hit “Check Yo Self.”
“Defendants deliberately and shamelessly misappropriated Ice Cube’s image and likeness to promote Robinhood’s horrible products and services — and the last things in the world to which Ice Cube would ever attach his image and likeness,” the lawsuit states. “This blatant theft of Ice Cube’s image and likeness to endorse Robinhood’s dangerous products and services has resulted in substantial damage to Ice Cube.”
“Just as Robinhood’s recent well-known conduct has resulted in Congressional investigations and numerous class-action lawsuits, so too has it stolen and diminished the hard-earned image and brand of Ice Cube, one of the most prominent Black voices in America,” the complaint alleges.
Robinhood has since denied any wrongdoing. The stock company told TMZ that the image was legally used and received. “No, we didn’t use his image without permission,” a Robinhood representative said. “The image was licensed and used for non-commercial, editorial purposes in connection with a blog article.”
In January, the stock trading app was hit with a class-action lawsuit for restricting users from acquiring more shares in GameStop, AMC and BlackBerry after they experienced a stock boom.