Three Black people who say they have spent more than a million dollars a year on Louis Vuitton products have filed a lawsuit against the designer brand, accusing the company of banning them from their stores for “Shopping While Black,” according to a lawsuit obtained by Atlanta Black Star.
Tracy Renee Williams is joined by her daughter, Brandi Williams, and a man named Kristopher Enoch, as plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in California.
The lawsuit states that in September 2022, Tracy ordered $50,000 in merchandise from the Louis Vuitton store in Costa Mesa, California, to be delivered to her home in October 2022 but she reportedly received an email from the company on Sept. 29, 2022, with the following message:
Dear Mrs. Tracy Williams: It has come to our attention that Louis Vuitton has been unable to satisfy your needs. Please be advised that Louis Vuitton is no longer prepared to do business with you and we ask that you no longer patronize our boutiques or attempt to order our products via telephone, online, or in person at any Louis Vuitton store. Please do not make further attempts to contact the stores. Any further attempts to communicate with Louis Vuitton should be directed to our Legal Department in writing to: Attn: General Counsel, Louis Vuitton Americas, 1 East 57th Street, New York, New York 10022.
After receiving the email, Tracy entered the Louis Vuitton store in Beverly Hills and was immediately kicked out under threat of arrest. A couple of days later, she sent her assistant, who is white, to make the purchase and was able to do it without any problems, the lawsuit states.
“To the contrary, Louis Vuitton staff treated him respectfully and, even when the assistant stated he would (and did) pay for the items with several thousand dollars cash, he was not otherwise prevented from making the purchase,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also says that not only did Tracy not receive the $50,000 of merchandise she had ordered, but she also never received a refund.
The other two defendants received similar emails banning them from their stores without explaining the actual reason for the ban, the suit explains.
However, when Brandi entered a Louis Vuitton store in Chicago in July 2023, the lawsuit stated that a white store manager kicked her out while falsely accusing her of spending “drug money” in their store. The lawsuit alleges that plaintiffs often made their purchases in cash.
Shortly after, Brandi handed a non-Black friend a gift card to make the purchase for her, and her friend was allowed to make the purchase.
But then Brandi received a call from an employee at the Chicago store, who she believed to be the manager, who told her the purchase was “illegal” and that she must return the item to the store.
The suit does not mention whether she returned the item, but it says she then visited a Louis Vuitton store in New Orleans and was ordered to leave under threat of arrest.
The third plaintiff, Enoch, received the email banning him after attempting to make a purchase for Tracy, according to the lawsuit.
Enoch was in the Beverly Hills store on Sept. 29, 2022, when he observed an employee showing a non-Black customer a jacket. The customer was not interested in purchasing it, so the employee returned the jacket to the back of the store, where it was not visible to customers.
When Enoch told them he would like to purchase the jacket for his friend Tracy, he was told he would not be allowed to purchase the jacket. He received the email later that day.
The lawsuit filed by Las Vegas attorney Jerold D. Friedman in U.S. District Court in Central California accuses Louis Vuitton of civil rights violations, racial discrimination, breach of contract and theft for failing to refund the $50,000 she spent in September 2022 for merchandise she never received.
The lawsuit mentions a January 2021 study titled Racial Bias in Retail that determined Black people are 2.5 times more likely than white customers to receive unfair treatment based on their skin color.
Even Oprah Winfrey, the richest Black woman in the world, said she also experienced unfair treatment at a Louis Vuitton store in Rome.
Winfrey described the incident in a video on her YouTube channel in 2015, saying she wanted to buy a Louis Vuitton bag for a friend but was not allowed because she was not Italian.
“This bag is for the Italian people; it’s only for the Italian people,” she quoted the Italian sales clerk as saying.
“Perhaps you can go to your country and you can find the bag in your country.”
