Easy Life to Change Name Amid Legal Dispute with the EasyGroup

Indie pop band Easy Life rose to prominence in 2020, coming second in the BBC's 'Sound of...' poll. Releasing their debut album 'Life's a Beach' in 2021, followed by their sophomore album 'Maybe in Another Life' in 2022. Beginning in October 2023, Easy Life has been embroiled in a legal dispute with the Easy Group.

In a statement released on the band's website last night, lead singer Murray Matravers wrote that Easy Life 'needs to change their name to move forward' adding that they are to enter legal mediation with the EasyGroup conglomerate.

The announcement comes after  a week of threatened legal action from the EasyGroup. On October 2nd it announced in an Instagram post on Easy Life's instagram that they were being sued by the EastJet group for their band name, noting jokingly that they 'apologise for anyone who booked gig tickets and ended up in Tenerife'.

 

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In response to this Instagram post chair Stelios Haji-Iannonou posted a statement on the EasyGroup website,: 'Mr Matravers needs to understand that he is not being sued by an airline. It should be clearly noted easyJet as a company is not part of the legal action. However, easyGroup, acts regularly in order to protect consumers from being confused by brand thieves and prevent “passing off”'.

This is not the first time the Easy Group Conglomerate has sued for the use of the word 'Easy'. In 2014, the company sued streaming service Netflix over its naming of comedy series 'Easy' claiming that the use of the word breached the company's European trademarks. Haji Iannou has stated that the EasyGroup has a legal budget of £4 million annually to prevent 'brand thieves, big and small'.

In response to the 'brand thief' accusation, Murray Matravas posted on the band's Instagram saying that the band first performed under the name Easy Life in 2015 while the EasyGroup only sought to copyright the term EasyLife in 2022. The post was captioned with: 'Sorry who's the brand thief here?'.

 

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The band has since posted a statement on Twitter stating that there are 'no good options available to us' and described the events as a 'David vs Goliath legal situation and our British legal system favours Goliath'. The band maintains it will not challenge the lawsuit as the case would be extremely expensive to fight in the High Court date will not be until 2025.

They have thanked their fans for 'the outpouring of love and anger and support and compassion. It has been completely overwhelming'.

The band is to play their final show as 'Easy Life' this Friday October 13th.