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Kanye West’s Yeezy brand settles lawsuit over shipping delays in $950,000 deal
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 9 November 2021
Kanye West’s clothing brand Yeezy has settled legal action filed by various district attorneys in California in relation to allegations that it has a rather shoddy approach to mailing out goods bought on its website. West’s company will hand over $950,000 to end the litigation, and commit to make sure it doesn’t make any false statements about when the stuff it sells will be shipped.
Californian law is quite specific when it comes to how quickly online sellers of goods must mail out any products they have sold. The lawsuit filed against Yeezy last month noted that state law “requires that orders for goods or services placed over the internet must be shipped within 30 days, failing which the business in question must either provide a refund, send equivalent or superior replacement goods, or provide the buyer with a written notice regarding the delay”.
However, the lawsuit went on, “defendants repeatedly violated [these rules] by failing to ship items within 30 days and failing to provide adequate delay notices to California consumers, or provide an offer of a refund”. Plus “defendants also made untrue or misleading statements regarding [their] ability to ship products within a certain timeframe, particularly where customers paid an additional charge for expedited shipping, in violation of Business And Professions Code Section 17500”.
Seemingly in no mood to fight this legal action, Yeezy has already settled, although it hasn’t actually admitted to any wrongdoing. LA County District Attorney George Gascón confirmed all this yesterday.
His office stated that “Yeezy Apparel LLC and Yeezy LLC will pay $950,000 to settle a civil lawsuit alleging the online sneaker and clothing company engaged in unlawful business practices and false advertising by failing to ship items in a timely manner”.
Gascón himself added: “Online consumers are entitled to protection against unwarranted fees and unreasonably long waits for purchases to arrive on their doorsteps. We will enforce state and federal laws governing online shopping in Los Angeles County”.
The clothing brand will pay each of the four district attorney offices involved in the case both $200,000 in civil penalties and $25,000 in investigative costs. An additional $50,000 in restitution will also be handed over to the Consumer Protection Prosecution Trust Fund.
The statement from Gascón’s office also said that “under the settlement, Yeezy is prohibited from making untrue or misleading representations regarding a shipping timeframe or refund”, and it also commits to “adhere to laws relating to the issuance of delay notices; and is required to refund money to consumers who, in the future, purchase products that are not shipped in a timely fashion”.
