Diego Luna contra Johnnie Walker

In this episode of All About the Supreme Court, Roberto Niembro speaks with legal secretaries Jimena Flores and Adalberto Méndez about the Supreme Court's ruling in favor of Diego Luna against Diageo, the distributor of Johnnie Walker, for the unauthorized use of his image in a 2011 whisky advertising campaign. The conversation explains why the case became a key precedent for the right to one's own image in Mexico. The Court held that a company cannot commercially exploit a person's identity, career, or prestige without authorization and then reduce the compensation by deducting production or marketing costs. The episode also details that the compensation stipulated in the Federal Copyright Law cannot be less than 40% of the retail price of the related product or service, and that its calculation must consider criteria such as the territory where the campaign was broadcast, the duration of its run, and adjustments for inflation. Beyond the case of a well-known actor, the analysis underscores that this ruling opens a path of protection for artists, creators, and anyone whose image is used for commercial purposes without consent, especially in a context where social media and artificial intelligence multiply the risks of identity theft.