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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Reality TV Bike Shop Draws Fire Over Promo Deal

A promoter claims in court that it paid to have a product featured by reality television’s Orange County Choppers only to find out that the episode would never air.

BROOKLYN, N.Y. (CN) – A promoter claims in court that it paid to have a product featured by reality television’s Orange County Choppers only to find out that the episode would never air.

Based in Newburgh, New York, the custom motorcycle business Orange County Choppers was the star for years of a reality TV series called “American Chopper.” TLC canceled the show, which had premiered on the Discovery Channel, in 2014.

The new complaint against the business concerns a short-lived spinoff called “Orange County Choppers: American Made,” which A&E aired from 2015 to 2016.

Brooklyn-based Crye Precision filed the suit on March 24 in Kings County Supreme Court. It says it signed a contract in the summer of 2015 to have the show build an entire episode around its camouflage pattern MultiCam.

The deal required Crye to pay $50,000, and Crye had put half of that amount down when it learned “that the show was unlikely to air,” according to the complaint.

Crye says it was “tricked” because it thought it had been kept in the dark about the distinction between Orange County Choppers and the separate entity it had paid, Orange County Choppers East Coast West Coast.

Prior to a December 2015 conversation with the CEO of Orange County Choppers, according to the complaint, “Crye understood that ‘Orange County Choppers’  was simply shorthand for Orange County Choppers East Coast West Coast LLC.”

Crye says its attorney demanded a refund in February 2016, but that ECWC has refused to pay up.

While the complaint brings a breach-of-contract claim against Orange County Choppers East Coast West Coast, it accuses Orange County Choppers of fraud.

A representative for the bike shop has not returned a voicemail seeking comment on the lawsuit.

Crye says it spent $8,000 on expenses as part of the contract, so it is owed $33,000 in damages. It is represented by Jonathan Antone.

Categories / Business, Entertainment

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