The ever-so-popular Kardashian sisters are currently facing a multimillion dollar lawsuit over their cosmetics line, Kardashian Beauty.
Kim, Kourtney and Khloé have been sued for $180 million by Hillair Capital Management, which is one of the brand's investors. The company sued them for fraud and breach of contract as the "essence" of the deal was that the sisters would actively promote the brand to their hundreds of millions of followers.
"The Kardashians' support was, of course, absolutely essential to the success of the Kardashian-branded line and was a fundamental premise of the parties' bargain," the lawsuit reads. "In short: the Kardashians wanted a better, more lucrative deal than they had struck with Hillair after the money to continue the line was already committed, and they used their ability to withhold their support of the line to attempt to force Hillair into a buyout of its interest."
The sisters partnered with Boldface cosmetics company back in 2012 to launch the line, which was formerly known as Khroma Beauty. In 2014, Hillair claims they stepped in to "salvage their struggling Kardashian Beauty makeup line after former distributor, Boldface, went belly up amidst legal and financial troubles."
Once Hillair came on as the investor, it claims that the Kardashians' promised promotion never happened and that they "almost immediately stopped marketing, promoting and supporting the line" and "began courting new potential investors to buy out Hillair's stake."
Hillair also isn't happy with some of the sisters' business decisions. The lawsuit mentions a 2015 incident in which Khloé attended a beauty expo in Dubai to promote Kardashian Beauty and allegedly ended up "screaming and cursing" and saying she "hated everything about the Kardashian Beauty products." It also mentions the fact that Kim has agreed to have her name appear on a different cosmetic brand's lipstick.
Hillair claims it has lost $10 million in invested funds with Kardashian Beauty and is also suing for the value of its equity interest, which is apparently valued between $64 and $180 million.
"This complaint is an obvious attempt to create leverage by hedge fund operators who took over the Kardashians' cosmetics brand," said their attorney Michael Kump. "The Kardashians have suffered enormous damages as a result of the many failures and breaches created by the operator's mismanagement of the company. The lawsuit is a disgrace. It is a jumble of false accusations which will be exposed as lies."
This comes just days after Waist Gang Society, another company the Kardashian sisters endorsed, was sued for false advertising. Although the sisters often promote the brand, they were not specifically involved in that lawsuit.