- Netflix has been ordered to remove a sex scene featuring a Spanish drug dealer, the Times of London reported.
- Laureano Oubiña said he was portrayed as violent and helpless in the crime drama “Cocaine Coast.”
- Oubiña also claimed that the series had caused him “moral harm.”
A Spanish drug trafficker has sued Netflix and forced the streaming service to remove a sex scene from a hit series.
Laureano Oubiña tried to sue Netflix last year for 1.5 million euros ($1.6 million), claiming that the unflattering portrayal of him in the series “Cocaine Coast” (“Fariña”) had caused him “moral harm,” the Times of London reported.
Netflix has now been ordered to pay Oubiña, 78, 15,000 euros (around $16,200) for violating her privacy, while the company has also been forced to cut an “explicit sex” scene that appeared at the beginning of the series’ first episode.
The court ruled that the scene was unnecessary and purely designed to “hook the viewer into the plot,” according to the Times of London.
Jorge Paladino, Oubiña’s lawyer, said in 2023 that Oubiña’s life had “deteriorated considerably” since the series’ release due to its portrayal of “a person capable of taking the life of another” and as being “violent, sexist, a cocaine trafficker, impotent, vicious, unfaithful, a bad father, a bad husband, brutal, stupid, vindictive, a womanizer, ignorant and a mafia member,” according to the report.
Oubiña was also offended by a scene showing him unable to have sex with his wife during a conjugal visit in prison.
The court, however, dismissed the other complaints.
The decision is subject to appeal, the report states.
Netflix representatives did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
“Cocaine Coast” tells the story of a young fisherman who became a cocaine trafficker in the 1980s in Galicia, a region in northwest Spain.
The show is currently not available in the United States.
The Oubiña trial is just one of many lawsuits Netflix has faced over its dramatization of true events.
Last month, Fiona Harvey, who claims the character Martha in the viral series “Baby Reindeer” was based on her, filed a lawsuit against Netflix, seeking more than $170 million in damages.
She claims the streamer did a poor job of concealing her identity and that the show ruined her reputation.
A Netflix spokesperson told BI that the streaming service intends to “vigorously defend this case and defend Richard Gadd’s right to tell his story.”
The estate of Colombian drug kingpin Griselda Blanco also filed a lawsuit earlier this year against Netflix over the series “Griselda,” in an attempt to stop the show from airing.
She claimed the streamer used the family’s images and likenesses without proper permission.
The lawsuit was settled in February.
Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider’s parent company Axel Springer, is a member of Netflix’s board of directors.
