Luke Combs has sworn to make things right with a fan who's facing a hefty fine for selling bootleg Combs merchandise.
Tampa, Fla. NBC affiliate WFLA reported on Tuesday (Dec. 12) that Pinellas, Fla. resident Nicol Harness had been ordered by a judge to pay $250,000 to Combs for selling a Combs-themed tumbler on Amazon, Harness sold 18 tumblers for $20 apiece, totaling $320 in sales.
WLFA added that Harness "suffers from congestive heart failure and her only job is selling homemade tumblers and t-shirts through Amazon."
She was among several sued by Combs' legal team in a federal court in Illinois.
"It's very stressful. I don't have money to pay my bills," Harness told WFLA. "I just want this resolved. I didn't mean any harm to Luke Combs. I quit selling the tumbler. I pulled it down. I just don't understand."
After a hospital stay, Harness discovered that she did not have access to the funds in her Amazon account. She also uncovered a legal notice from Combs' team via email in the spam folder of an account she rarely checks, with the notice giving her just 21 days to respond. While lawsuit notices must be served in person in Florida, a recent law change in Illinois allows for emails.
On Wednesday morning (Dec. 13), Combs turned to social media to address the situation.
"I spent the last two hours trying to make this right, trying to figure out what's going on because I was completely and utterly unaware of this," Combs said, later adding that ""tt makes me sick, honestly, that this would happen, especially at the holidays."
"We do have a company that goes after folks, only supposedly large corporations operating internationally that make millions and millions of dollars making counterfeit t-shirts, things of that nature, running illegal businesses," he continued. "And apparently, this woman, Nicol, has somehow gotten wrapped into that, and that makes me absolutely sick to my stomach."
Combs has offered Harness $11,000, which is double the amount of money in her Amazon account, plus concert tickets for her family. In addition, Combs wants to release his own tumbler to raise funds for Harness.
