Freelancer awarded $300,000 in a lawsuit against Kanye West fashion brand Yeezy
Freelance creative director learned a costly lesson when not signing a contract with fashion brand
Kanye West’s fashion brand Yeezy has been ordered to pay $300,000 to a Brooklyn-based freelance creative director who claimed the fashion label did not pay her what she was due for work carried out on a photoshoot featuring the rapper.
Per court documents, freelance creative Katelyn Mooney won a court case against Yeezy when Ye’s (formerly known as Kanye West) legal representatives failed to respond to the lawsuit in time, according to Yahoo News. Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Gerald Lebovits made the ruling this week, it was reported.
“Mooney filed her lawsuit against Yeezy in December 2022 and said that she wasn’t paid the agreed-upon $110,000 for the photography work she did for Yeezy’s sunglasses line SHDZ. When she delivered the final assets to the company on Sept. 14, she had only been paid $15,000. In text messages with employees at Yeezy, the company agreed to pay her $110,000. She also sent various invoices that were not met,” said Yahoo’s report.
The company has been found responsible for the claims because Yeezy never assigned a lawyer to the case or even responded. The awarded amount is comprised of $95,000 in damages and $205,000 in statutory damages.
The freelancer was forced to absorb costs related to the fashion shoot and subsequently had to take out loans and use credit cards to cover her expenses because she was not paid by Yeezy, it was said.
It was reported by several news sources that Mooney did not sign a contract with the company and communicated mainly through text with Yeezy staff about the project, invoices and payments.
