The more we learn about the ins and outs of the KarJenner empire, the shadier things look!
Earlier this week it was announced that Kim Kardashian West had followed in sister Kylie Jenner’s footsteps by making a HUGE deal with cosmetics company Coty. Coty invested $200 million in exchange for a 20% stake in KKW Beauty, which bumped the brand to billionaire status.
Related: Kanye Congratulates “Official” Billionaire Kim In Bizarre Twitter Tribute
We imagine that momager Kris Jenner is popping the champagne over yet another successful Coty/KarJenner union, but the celebration might be just a bit premature. Especially considering now, both Kim and Kylie’s companies are being sued by their manufacturer.
Here’s the rundown: Seed Beauty is a makeup manufacturer known for their speedy turnaround on creating new products, which is why they’ve been favored by Kim, Kylie, and other influencers like Tati Westbrook. Their ultimate goal was to “bring the fast-fashion model to beauty,” according to co-founder Laura Nelson in a 2018 InStyle interview. The company, which also launched the successful Colourpop brand, has long been tightlipped on the secrets to their success.
Now, as perhaps the biggest brands involved with the manufacturer enter into lucrative partnerships with Coty, Seed is clearly worried about those secrets getting out. They filed a preventative lawsuit against KKW last week, hoping to prohibit trade secrets from leaking to their competitor.
Meanwhile, in a lawsuit filed Tuesday against Coty and King Kylie (the LLC behind Kylie Cosmetics), Seed claimed the deed may already have been done. The company alleged that it asked “numerous times” throughout Jenner’s negotiations with Coty to keep aspects of their own partnership confidential. However, the 22-year-old and her team “refused to confirm or deny whether they had shared the information,” according to Forbes.
Seed even went so far as to suggest that the landmark Coty-Kylie Cosmetics deal was less about the businesswoman, and more about the business behind her! The suit alleged:
“Coty made a $600 million investment in King Kylie, but it really was a subterfuge to learn Seed’s confidential business methodologies. Any competitor who acquired such information would be given an unfair competitive advantage.”
Wow! That’s a hell of an accusation!
Related: Tati Westbrook Says Jeffree Star & Shane Dawson ‘Manipulated’ Her In James Charles Drama!
So what’s the word from the KarJenner camp? KKW Beauty filed an opposition to their suit, saying Seed’s actions were an “attempt to stifle the success of the Kardashian-Jenner family.” The beauty brand defended itself, saying:
“The purported harm to Seed is entirely speculative, unfounded, and already complete. By contrast, KKW stands to suffer comparatively more significant harm if the Court were to enter the amorphous injunction proposed by Seed.”
No word yet from the Kylie side of things, but according to a source for TMZ:
“[There’s] no real ‘secret’ to [Seed’s] success, it’s the Kardashian/Jenner brand as a whole … not to mention their hundreds of millions of followers across social media.”
What do U think, Perezcious readers? Are Kim and Kylie involved in some corporate espionage here? Let us know your thoughts in the comments (below).
[Image via Sheri Determan/WENN]
The post Kylie Jenner & Kim Kardashian’s Makeup Companies SUED By Manufacturer Over Trade Secrets! appeared first on Perez Hilton.