David Beckham accused Wahlberg’s company of breach of contract in a long-running legal battle
David Beckham has settled a lawsuit against a fitness company co-owned by Mark Wahlberg after he accused it of losing him millions of dollars.
Beckham’s company, DB Ventures Limited, filed the suit against F45 Training in October 2022 claiming F45 owed money for promotional social media posts.
The football star entered into a five-year contract with Wahlberg’s company as a brand ambassador in 2020, and said he’d been set to receive a compensation of $1.5 million a year.
Beckham became an ambassador for F45 in 2020. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
Beckham’s contract also allegedly granted him shares of the fitness company to be given six months and 12 months after the company went public in 2021.
However, in the complaint, DB Ventures claimed: “Despite DBVL upholding its end of the bargain… F45 failed to issue substantial cash and equity compensation to DBVL as required by the parties’ agreement.”
F45 was accused of failing to hand over the shares it owed for eight months past the original date given, during which time they had dropped in price by an estimated $9.3 million, Beckham’s company claimed.
DBVL claimed this cost Beckham an $10.8 million in potential profit.
When the company submitted its court filing, Beckham asked the court to award $5 million, $4.5 million and $1.7 million for claims listed in the lawsuit, all relating to breach of contract.
F45 initially attempted to have the lawsuit thrown out, accusing DB Ventures Limited of having a ‘skewed reading’ of the contract.
Wahlberg’s company wished Beckham’s ‘all the best’. (Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for F45 Training)
However the case moved ahead and was set to go to trial in 2025, until the companies announced on 6 June that they had reached a settlement.
In a press release, Dan Dienst, executive vice chairman of Authentic Brands Group, on behalf of DB Ventures Limited, said: “We are pleased to have settled this issue and to retain our investment in F45, and wish the team all the best for the future.”
Tom Dowd, CEO of F45 Training, said: “For a long time, F45 has been – and continues to be – a supporter of Beckham, as he has been for our brand, and are pleased to have reached a mutual business decision to resolve the matter.
“We remain committed to supporting the growth of our global franchisees as demonstrated by our recent strong year-over-year same store sales growth in April of 9.4 percent (F45), 14.9 percent (FS8 Pilates) and 41.7 percent (VAURA Pilates).
“We are excited about our future and the continued growth of our world-class fitness brands that generated robust total system-wide sales for April of $48.9 million.”
The press release added that Beckham’s company will remain an investor in F45 Training going forward.
