Diageo Cuts Ties With Diddy Amidst His Lawsuit Alleging Racism, Mismanagement

Music mogul and entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs arrives at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas on May 15, 2022. Combs is suing Diageo, saying the spirits company didn’t make promised investments in his vodka and tequila brands and treated them as inferior “urban” brands. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

Spirits giant Diageo has officially broken ties with business mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs after he accused the company of racism and mismanagement in a lawsuit filed at the end of May.

Combs — who up until now co-owned Cîroc Vodka and DeLeón Tequila alongside Diageo — claimed in his highly-publicized lawsuit that the company typecasted his spirits as “black brands” intended only for “urban consumers.” Combs alleges that Diageo failed to properly support Cîroc and DeLeón, instead choosing to push its chips onto brands like Don Julio and George Clooney’s Casamigos.

In a court filing on Tuesday, Diageo made its first public response to the allegations. The company called to have the lawsuit dismissed and announced that it will no longer be working with Combs.

“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,” Diageo said in the Manhattan federal court filing.

“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.”

In addition to his spirits ventures, Combs has amassed a reportedly $1 billion fortune from his ownership of Bad Boy Entertainment, clothing brand Sean John, Revolt TV network, cannabis producer Cresco Labs and even a line of charter schools.

Diageo’s claim that he contributed only $1,000 to Cîroc and DeLeón represents a major development in the case, albeit one that will likely be hotly contested.

Over the years, Combs has gone all-in on a variety of occasionally outlandish promos for his spirits brands, including a high-profile placement in an Uber Eats Super Bowl ad. Weeks before the announcement of his lawsuit, Combs debuted Diddy Direct, a direct-to-consumer platform dedicated exclusively to his spirits portfolio.

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