Liquor giant Diageo is ending its 15-year partnership with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs following the music mogul and entrepreneur’s racial discrimination lawsuit.
Diddy sued the company last month, alleging Diageo North America neglected to provide adequate resources to his Ciroc vodka and DeLeón tequila brands, while favoring other celebrity brands like George Clooney-founded Casamigos. He further claimed in the lawsuit that Diageo had “typecast” DeLeon as a “Black brand,” restricting distribution to only “urban” neighborhoods, hindering the sales growth of his brands.
The company responded to the lawsuit in a Tuesday filing denying the accusations while calling Combs’ suit a “sham action.” They claimed Diddy “amassed nearly one billion dollars” from their partnership but now wanted to “extract” billions more. Diageo asked the judge to dismiss the case or order that it be resolved through that private arbitration process.
Diageo also shared the company is permanently cutting ties with Combs.
“Mr. Combs’ bad-faith actions have clearly breached his contracts and left us no choice but to move to dismiss his baseless complaint and end our business relationship,” the company wrote. “Mr. Combs has repeatedly undermined our partnerships and threatened to publicly defame Diageo if we did not meet his unreasonable financial demands.”
John Hueston, who is representing Combs Wines and Spirits, said on Tuesday that Diageo’s attempts to end the partnership were “like firing a whistleblower who calls out racism.”
“It’s a cynical and transparent attempt to distract from multiple allegations of discrimination,” Combs’ attorneys said. Over the years, he has repeatedly raised concerns as senior executives uttered racially insensitive comments and made biased decisions” based on that point of view. Diageon even acknowledged the problem by agreeing in his contract to treat DeLeon the same way it treated their other tequila brands. He brought the lawsuit to force them to live up to that contract, and instead they respond by trying to get rid of him. This lawsuit and Mr. Combs are not going away.”
Diageo and Combs’ relationship dates back to 2007, when they partnered on Ciroc. In 2013, Combs bought DeLeón and formed a joint venture with Diageo for the tequila brand.
