Leicester-formed indie-pop band Easy Life have announced plans to change their name following a legal dispute with the owners of EasyJet.
Updating fans in a statement, Easy Life wrote that “having explored literally every possible angle,” they have no choice but to “change our name to move forward.”
“We simply don’t have the funds to access a fair trial in the high court,” they wrote. “Not to mention the fact that this would likely rattle on through to 2025, and with this hanging over us we wouldn’t be able to release any music in the meantime. Our careers, and indeed our lives, would be on hold.”
The band’s upcoming shows at Leicester’s O2 Academy (October 12) and London’s KOKO (Oct 13) will be their last as Easy Life. They are yet to reveal plans for a new name.
Last week, the band told fans that EasyGroup â who own the budget airline EasyJet, as well as a number of other brands â had filed a lawsuit against them claiming that the band’s name infringed on one of their brand trademarks. EasyGroup acquired the trademark for EasyLife in July 2022.
In court documents, EasyGroup called Easy Life’s frontman Murray Matravers and his bandmates a “brand thief”. In the suit, they highlighted past merchandise and tour visuals which parodied the budget airline and its logo, and claimed that alleged swearing and drunkenness during the band’s live performances were both damaging to their “valuable reputation”. The company is seeking “substantial” damages.
In a statement EasyGroup claimed that Easy Life are engaged in “the deliberate misleading of the consumer to think that they are part of the easy family in order to increase their own sales … [frontman] Mr Matravers has intentionally used EasyGroup’s well known stylisation and images of easyJet planes in his marketing”.
Easy Life played their first gig under the moniker in 2015, and released their debut single in 2017. Since then, they’ve released two albums – Life’s a Beach and MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE… – which both charted at number 2 in the UK.
Camberwell and Peckham’s Labour MP Harriet Harman posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) in defence of Easy Life, asking EasyJet to “confirm that you are withdrawing the legal action launched against my constituents’ band”
— easy life (@easylife) October 2, 2023
”As some of you already discovered, we are being sued. EasyJet are suing us for being called Easy Life,” they wrote in an initial statement last week. “They’re forcing us to change our name or take up a costly legal battle that we could never afford.”
“For those of you that bought gig tickets and ended up on a budget flight to Tenerife, I apologise,” they joke elsewhere. “For the rest of you, thank you so much for all your support.”
EasyGroup is known for taking similar legal action against other companies using “easy” in their monikers; a section of their website entitled ‘brand thieves’ lists their legal victories. “Some people think they can make a fast buck by stealing our name and our reputation,” they claim.
The Standard has approached EasyGroup for comment.
