Ric Flair Suing FAM Networks, Claims He Was Duped By Influencer Talent Agency

Ric Flair is suing FAM Networks, an influencer talent agency that Flair claims duped him into signing away the rights to his own image and likeness while promising him a six-figure monthly revenue stream that allegedly never materialized.

The Independent obtained the $10 million lawsuit, which states, “What FAM did was simple: it waited until he needed help managing the digital legacy of everything he had built, presented him with a document he was not equipped to understand, told him he had lawyers when he did not, gave him fourteen minutes to read it, and walked away with a perpetual license to his identity.”

Flair says he’s lost out on at least $250,000 in revenue so far.

FAM Networks reportedly defrauded Flair by quietly taking control of his social media accounts, recategorizing them to make recovery near-impossible, and milked his persona for profits he never saw.

The lawsuit claims “FAM pledged 50 percent to Flair for ‘collaborative projects,’ and 10 percent for ‘passive content.’ FAM would also restore Flair’s ‘hacked, demonetized’ Facebook page, which it claimed would throw off six figures on a monthly basis. These were not aspirations. They were contractual obligations. FAM delivered none of them. It sourced not one speaking engagement. Not one in-person appearance. Not one personal project at the ninety percent royalty tier. It reposted existing content.”

It’s alleged that FAM made as much as $20,000 a month on Flair’s Facebook page while paying him nothing.

Flair is now asking a judge to rescind the agreement with FAM, to order control of his Facebook page returned to him, a declaratory judgment stating that FAM has no right to his name, image, or likeness, and for a “complete accounting of revenues generated in his name.”

He is also demanding compensatory damages, among other things, of at least $5 million for breach of contract; compensatory and punitive damages of at least $5 million for fraudulent inducement; compensatory damages to be determined at trial for violations of New York Civil Rights Law; compensatory and punitive damages for tortious interference with prospective economic advantage, also to be determined at trial; and disgorgement of all amounts by which FAM “has been unjustly enriched at [Fliehr’s] expense,” plus attorneys’ fees and court costs.