Jurors at a civil trial focused on the market value of Michael Jordan’s identity handed him a major win Friday, ordering a grocery-store chain to pay him $8.9 million for invoking his name in a steak ad without his permission.
Lawyers for Safeway, owner of now-defunct Chicago-based chain Dominick’s, said Jordan should be paid $126,900 for the use of his name in a 2009 ad Dominick’s placed in a commemorative issue Sports Illustrated published for Jordan’s induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
But Jordan’s lawyers and Jordan himself testified that his endorsement history suggests he would not have taken that deal.
Jordan’s legal representatives brought in sports economist Andrew Zimbalist, who testified that Jordan’s fair market value for the ad was $10 million.
Jordan remarked that the case “was never about money” and that he’ll give the damages award to charities in Chicago.
BREAKING: Jury says Safeway, Dominick’s owner, has to pay Michael Jordan $8.9 MILLION for this ad in SI in 2009 pic.twitter.com/DD6O7Rt3D9
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) August 22, 2015
