(London) British drinks giant Diageo announced Tuesday that it had agreed “to resolve all differences” with American rapper and music producer Sean Combs, aka P. Diddy, who agrees to drop charges of racism.
Diageo announced in June that it was terminating its contract with Sean Combs, after the latter filed a lawsuit accusing the group of neglecting its tequila and vodka brands out of racism.
“Mr. Combs has withdrawn all his allegations concerning Diageo” and will definitively drop his lawsuits, the group announced in a press release.
“Diageo and Mr. Combs no longer have any commercial relationship, whether on Cîroc vodka or DeLeón tequila, of which Diageo is now the exclusive owner,” the company added, without giving further details.
The company said in June that it was “saddened that Mr. Combs chose to portray a business disagreement in another way and damage a productive partnership.” Diageo specified that it had injected more than 100 million dollars into the DeLeon brand.
The American rapper filed a complaint in early June against the British giant before the Supreme Court of the State of New York, accusing it of having categorized its vodka and tequila as “black brands” and of not having invested as much in their development than for the brands of other celebrities.
After a net profit up 15%, to 3.7 billion pounds for its staggered annual financial year ended at the end of June, Diageo warned in November that poorer prospects than initially announced for Latin America and the Caribbean would weigh on his results.