Diageo Retains Full Ownership Rights of Ciroc and DeLeón Brands in Settlement with Diddy

The
lawsuit
between
Diageo
and
Sean
“Diddy”
Combs
has
reached
a
settlement,
which
includes
the
HIp-Hop
mogul
agreeing
to
withdraw
all
allegations
and
dismissing
his
lawsuits.

The
two
released
a
joint
public
statement
to

The
Source:

Sean
Combs
and
Diageo
have
now
agreed
to
resolve
all
disputes
between
them.
Mr.
Combs
has
withdrawn
all
of
his
allegations
about
Diageo
and
will
voluntarily
dismiss
his
lawsuits
against
Diageo
with
prejudice.
Diageo
and
Mr.
Combs
have
no
ongoing
business
relationship,
either
with
respect
to
Cîroc
vodka
or
DeLeón
tequila,
which
Diageo
now
solely
owns.

No
further
details
of
the
settlement
were
revealed.

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In
June
2023,
Diageo
PLC
severed
ties
with
Sean
“Diddy”
Combs
after
the
Bad
Boy
mogul
filed
a
lawsuit
stating
the
company
ignored
the
jointly
owned
DeLeon
tequila
brand.

According
to
The
Wall
Street
Journal,
Diageo
allegedly
directed
its
attention
to
two
other
tequila
brands,
one
of
which
is
the
George
Clooney-led
Casamigos.
Included
in
the
suit,
Diddy
notes
Diageo
exhibits
racial
discrimination
by
placing
DeLeón
in
the
“urban”
category
and
also
referring
to
the
tequila
as
a
“Black
brand.”

At
the
time,
Diageo
called
for
the
lawsuits
to
be
dismissed
and
cut
a
deal
with
Combs.
A
Diageo
spokesperson
released
a
statement
to

The
Source:

We
are
saddened
that
Mr.
Combs
has
chosen
to
recast
a
business
dispute
as
anything
other
than
that
and
chosen
to
damage
a
productive
and
valued
partnership.
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.
Mr.
Combs
has
repeatedly
undermined
our
partnerships
and
threatened
to
publicly
defame
Diageo
if
we
did
not
meet
his
unreasonable
financial
demands.

Diageo
believes
strongly
in
the
CIRÔC
and
DeLeón
brands
and
remains
committed
to
their
success,
which
is
why
we
tried
for
years
to
salvage
the
broken
relationship
with
Mr.
Combs.
We
funded
the
purchase
of
DeLeón
for
the
joint
venture
and
proceeded
to
invest
more
than
$100
million
to
grow
the
brand.
Despite
having
made
nearly
a
billion
dollars
over
the
course
of
our
15-year
relationship,
Mr.
Combs
contributed
a
total
of
$1,000
and
refused
to
honor
his
commitments.

We
have
exhausted
every
reasonable
remedy
and
see
no
other
path
forward.

In
the
filing,
Diageo
stated,
“In
an
effort
to
extract
additional
billions
from
Diageo,
Combs
has
resorted
to
false
and
reckless
allegations,
including
numerous
defamatory
and
disparaging
accusations…”

The
filing
also
read,
“Notably,
the
Combs
Parties
have
not
sued
Diageo
for
discrimination,
nor
could
they…”

Diageo
also
called
the
case
“self-serving”
and
attempting
to
press
the
company
into
early
settlement
while
leaning
the
public
in
Diddy’s
support
by
laying
claims
that
don’t
have
“legal
or
factual
basis.”