Three Black Friends Who Spent Half a Million Dollars a Year on Louis Vuitton Products Say They Were Banned from Stores on False Accusations They Were Drug Dealers, Lawsuit Says

Three Black individuals who say they spend greater than $1 million a yr on Louis Vuitton products have filed a lawsuit against the designer brand, accusing the corporate of banning them from selling their products in its stores for “shopping while Black,” based on the lawsuit obtained by Atlanta Black Star.

Tracy Renee Williams was joined by her daughter, Brandi Williams, and a man named Kristopher Enoch, who’re plaintiffs within the lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in California.

The lawsuit states that in September 2022, Tracy ordered $50,000 price of merchandise from a Louis Vuitton store in Costa Mesa, California, to be delivered to her home in October 2022, but reportedly received an email from the corporate on September 29, 2022 with the next message:

After receiving the e-mail, Tracy entered a Louis Vuitton store in Beverly Hills and was immediately thrown out under threat of arrest. A couple of days later, she sent her white assistant to make the acquisition and was capable of achieve this without incident, the lawsuit said.

“On the contrary, Louis Vuitton employees treated him with respect, and even when the assistant stated he would pay for the items in cash (and did pay) several thousand dollars, he was not otherwise prevented from making the purchase,” the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit also alleges that Tracy not only didn’t receive the $50,000 price of merchandise she ordered, but she also never received a refund.

As explained within the lawsuit, the opposite two defendants received similar emails banning them from their stores, but without providing the actual reason for the ban.

However, when Brandi entered a Louis Vuitton store in Chicago in July 2023, the lawsuit claims that a white store manager kicked her out, falsely accusing her of spending “drug money” in the shop. The lawsuit alleges that the plaintiffs often made purchases with money.

Shortly thereafter, Brandi gave her non-Black friend a gift card to make the acquisition for her, and her friend was allowed to make the acquisition.

However, Brandi later received a call from a Chicago store worker, whom she assumed was the manager, who told her the acquisition was “illegal” and that she needed to return the items to the shop.

The lawsuit doesn’t mention whether the lady returned the item, but says she then visited a Louis Vuitton store in New Orleans, where she was ordered to go away or threatened with arrest.

A 3rd plaintiff, Enoch, received an email saying he had been blocked after attempting to make a purchase for Tracy, based on the lawsuit.

Enoch was in a Beverly Hills store on September 29, 2022, when he noticed an worker showing a jacket to a non-Black customer. The customer was not fascinated about purchasing it, so the worker put the jacket at the back of the shop, where it was not visible to customers.

When Enoch told them he desired to buy a jacket for his friend Tracy, he was told he would not find a way to purchase the jacket. He received an email later that day.

The lawsuit, filed by Las Vegas attorney Jerold D. Freeman within the U.S. District Court for Central California, accuses Louis Vuitton of civil rights violations, racial discrimination, breach of contract and theft by failing to refund $50,000 she spent in September 2022 on merchandise she never received.

The lawsuit cites a January 2021 study titled “Racial Bias in Retail” that found that Black individuals are 2.5 times more likely than white customers to be treated unfairly due to color of their skin.

Even Oprah Winfrey, the richest black woman on the planet, admitted that she also experienced unfair treatment on the Louis Vuitton store in Rome.

Winfrey described the incident In video On her YouTube channel in 2015, she wrote that she desired to buy a Louis Vuitton bag for a friend, but was not allowed because she was not Italian.

“This bag is for Italians; only for Italians,” she quoted the words of an Italian saleswoman.

“Maybe you’ll be able to go to your country and find the bag there.”