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 Combs has withdrawn all of his allegations about Diageo and will voluntarily dismiss his lawsuits against Diageo with prejudice.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.

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. Diageo also houses Diddy’s Ciroc.

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.”