David Beckham has settled a lawsuit with F45, the fitness company co-owned by actor Mark Wahlberg, after he claimed he was owed about $11 million in damages from his contract as a brand ambassador for the company.
Two years after signing a promotional deal with F45, soccer legend Beckham filed an $18.8 million lawsuit against the company in October 2022 for breach of contract.
The lawsuit seeks damages from Wahlberg’s Mark Wahlberg Investment Group and F45 founders Adam Gilchrist and Rob Deutsch, and claims that Wahlberg promoted his personal training services through F45 but has not received compensation due to him for his association with the company.
As part of the deal, Beckham’s company, David Beckham Ventures, claimed he was also promised equity in the company in early 2022, though that wasn’t revealed until several months later, by which point the stock price had plummeted from around $12 a share to $3.
DBVL believes the postponement has cost the former England captain an estimated $10.8 million in potential earnings.
However, according to People magazine, seven months before the trial was set to begin, Beckham’s lawyers settled the breach of contract lawsuit with Wahlberg and F45.
In a press release on Thursday, F45 reportedly said it had “reached an agreement to resolve a previous lawsuit brought by DB Ventures Limited concerning our ambassador agreement with David Beckham.”
Tom Dowd, CEO of F45 Training, added: “Just as Mr. Beckham has been an advocate of our brand, F45 has long been and will continue to be an advocate of his. We are pleased to have been able to reach a mutual business decision to resolve this issue.”
Dowd added, “We are excited about the future and look forward to the continued growth of our world-class fitness brand, which achieved strong system-wide total sales of $48.9 million in April.”
Beckham and Wahlberg bought a 36% stake in F45 in 2019. The former Manchester United and Real Madrid star became friends after moving to Los Angeles in 2007 to play for Major League Soccer team LA Galaxy.
He agreed to become an F45 global ambassador in November 2020, but before that he was photographed working out on the brand’s equipment at one of the company’s fitness centers.
As part of the deal, Beckham also shared posts promoting Australian companies to his millions of followers on Instagram – posts which have since been deleted.
He initially sued F45 alongside golf legend Greg Norman in 2022, but a California court reportedly ruled that the lawsuits must be filed separately.
