Investors are suing Adidas on the grounds that the company was aware of Kanye West's questionable actions for years prior to the termination of their collaboration.
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| Image Source - Google | Image by <br><a href= BBC News |
Adidas is accused by investors of failing to take precautions to reduce their risk and prevent financial losses.
Following anti-Semitic remarks, the world's largest sportswear company cut ties with the rapper and designer known as Ye last year.
Adidas said, "We outright reject these unfounded claims."
The statement said, "We will take all necessary steps to vehemently defend ourselves against them."
West isn't a defendant in the lawsuit. For Adidas, the rapper created the wildly popular Yeezy line of sneakers.
Adidas has since acknowledged that it may suffer a loss of up to €700 million (£619 million) as a result of having hundreds of millions of euros' worth of unsold Yeezy merchandise.
When the firm canceled the partnership in October of last year, it declared: "Adidas does not accept antisemitism and any other type of hate speech.
He has recently made remarks and taken acts that are undesirable, harmful, and against the company's principles of inclusiveness, respect, and fairness.
On the other hand, investors who filed a complaint against the business on Friday in the US say that Adidas was aware of additional dubious actions by West and that it was addressed by former CEO Kasper Rorsted and senior management.
Details of a supposedly held meeting in 2018 where Adidas allegedly discussed West were revealed by The Wall Street Journal.
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| Image Source - Google | Image by <br><a href= BBC News |
According to the article, senior officials discussed ways to reduce the chance that employees would interact with him as well as the possibility that the firm would sever its relationship with the rapper.
Adidas fired West in October of last year, and since then, an inquiry has been opened as a result of claims that he fostered a "toxic environment" within the business.
Parts of an open letter written by Adidas employees were published in Rolling Stone magazine. The employees stated that their managers were aware of West's "problematic behavior" but "turned their moral compass off."
Adidas retorted that it was unclear whether the charges included in the letter were accurate.
But the statement said, "We take these claims extremely seriously, and we have decided to immediately begin an independent inquiry of the situation to address the concerns.
Models donned apparel with the message "White Lives Matter" at West's show at Paris Fashion Week in October of last year.
It is "a white supremacist phrase that originated in early 2015 as a racist response to the Black Lives Matter movement," according to the Anti-Defamation League.
West's Instagram and Twitter accounts were terminated later that month after he made anti-Semitic comments.
