Imagine you walked into a Chipotle and saw a photo of yourself on the wall eating at another Chipotle years earlier — used without your permission.
That’s exactly what a California woman is accusing Chipotle Mexican Grill of doing and she’s suing the Denver-based fast-casual chain for $2.2 billion in damages.
Sacramento resident Leah Caldwell filed suit in U.S. District Court of Colorado on Dec. 27, alleging Chipotle used her image without her consent for commercial gain and in violation of her “reasonable expectation of privacy.”
The photo, Caldwell alleges in the suit, was taken in the late summer or early fall of 2006 while she was dining at the Chipotle near the University of Denver.
There were no visible cameras or public announcements of a photo shoot while she was in the restaurant, she said. As Caldwell was leaving, though, a photographer approached her and asked her to sign a release for some photos he had taken. She refused.
Years later in December 2014, Caldwell entered a different Chipotle in Orlando, Fla., and saw her image on the restaurant’s wall. In March 2015, the same thing happened at two Chipotle locations in California, she said.
“At each location, the plaintiff recognized the iconic picture, her distinct photographic image and likeness even with apparent editing,” the suit claims.
Among the edits, she said, was the addition of bottles in the foreground, which “put a false light upon her character associated with consuming alcoholic beverages.”
Caldwell, who is representing herself, also named Chipotle CEO and founder Steve Ells and a photographer, Steve Adams, in the complaint.
Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold declined to discuss details of pending legal action, but said in an e-mail Wednesday that “the filing of a lawsuit is purely allegation and is proof of absolutely nothing.”
