On November 10, 2025 the Civil and Commercial Court No. 1 of the city of Mar del Plata, Province of Buenos Aires, ordered an airline to pay compensation for damages caused by the unauthorized use of the plaintiff’s image on its institutional website. According to the plaintiff, the photograph at issue came from a personal photo session conducted around 2009. Nevertheless, in 2010 the defendant allegedly incorporated the image into its website without obtaining the required authorization. Once the plaintiff became aware of the situation, she reportedly made several attempts to contact the airline, but received no response.
The plaintiff based her claim on Section 31 of Law 11.723, which provides that a person’s photographic portrait cannot be commercialized without their express consent; Section 53 of the National Civil and Commercial Code, which recognizes the right to one’s image and requires the rights holder’s consent for any reproduction; and Law 25.326 on Personal Data Protection.
Iberia, in turn, argued that it had obtained a license to use the photograph through the platform Getty Images and, therefore, that the action should be directed instead against that company and the photographer who had allegedly commercialized the image.
The court found that the defendant had failed to prove the existence of a valid use license granted by Getty Images, as alleged in its initial submission. It also held that none of the exceptions under Law 11.723 or the Civil and Commercial Code that allow the reproduction of a third party’s image without consent were applicable in this case, such as participation in public events, the regular exercise of the right to report on matters of public interest, or the existence of a predominant scientific, cultural, or educational interest. The court emphasized that consent for the capture and dissemination of a person’s image must be express and specific, and its interpretation must be restrictive. Accordingly, it concluded that no consent or authorization had been given by Ms. Diaz for the use of her image on Iberia’s official website.
As a result, the court ordered the defendant to pay the plaintiff ARS 24,110,000 (approximately USD 17,252), plus interest, as compensation for the damages arising from the unauthorized use of her image over the years involved.
