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Claim for recovery of profits in case of unlawful use
of a person’s image
Ioannis-Alexandros Farchount,
Attorney-at-law, LLM
Enrichment through means granted to others is one of the most
underappreciated and less used legal basis in the Greek legal system. This is
especially true in the field of the so called right of publicity and right of privacy.
The legal practitioner focuses for a variety of reasons on the restitution of lost
profits and the compensation for pain and suffering inflicted by the unlawful
use of a person’s image. This has led to such a perversion of the teleology of
the institution of compensation for pain and suffering that lawsuits that are
based in actuality on property disputes are being handled as defamations or
violations to a person’s honor and reputation. This raises the question: Is there
legal basis in the Greek legal system that allows for the removal of wrongfully
obtained gains? The main question in other words is the following: To whom
should the gains be transferred? To him, whose work was instrumental in
achieving them or to him, whose exclusive right of use was infringed? And if
either party is chosen, should all the profits be assigned to a single person or
should a distribution take place? What may seem as a philosophical question
could have major practical implications and lead to a rationalization of Greek
restitution law. The subcategory of a person’s image is being used as a concrete
example of a right, in which a clear answer to the aforementioned question
could seem unwarranted.
To this effect the book uses the Greek judicature to extract and explain the
fundamental principles of this branch of private law
ISBN 978-960-562-542-9
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