Hollywood action star and former Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is suing a Russian tech startup for $10 million (£7 million) after it used his likeness to create a promotional robot.

Schwarzenegger claims he did not give the robotics firm permission to use his likeness to develop its Robo-C android, dubbed ‘Arnie android’, which it is utilising at events for self-promotion.

The Austrian movie star was reportedly asked to pose for a photo with the robot at an event in St Petersberg, Russia, in 2019 but he refused. The robot was also showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on the 8th of January, but the actor now wants an injunction to prevent the company from continuing to use the robot.

Schwarzenegger’s lawyers said they sent Promobot a cease and desist letter, demanding that it stops promoting its product with his face. The lawyers claim that the company promised to stop using the android, but it then made an appearance at the New York Toy Fair in late February.

The actor’s lawyers said he is strict about who can use his face for advertising purposes because “such activity diminishes his hard-earned and well-deserved reputation as a major motion picture star”.

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Their lawsuit states that he has become the “unwilling face” of Promobot’s product.

According to the Promobot website, Robo-C costs $25,000 (£19,360) and can be made to “look like any human on Earth”, and it “displays more than 600 variants of human facial expressions”.