Adidas loses bid to Re-Freeze $75 million held by Yeezy brand.
Kanye West’s wins court case against Adidas — Overturned by Judge
Adidas made only “unpersuasive arguments” in its effort to keep the money frozen, a federal judge says.
Last week, West’s legal team challenged the order to freeze the $75 million and Caproni obliged, unfreezing the funds after ruling that Adidas took away his “fair chance to reply.” For clarity’s sake, Tuesday’s ruling only pertains to the emergency motion to re-freeze the funds. Adidas can still request that the court re-freeze the Yeezy founder funds through a different order.
According to court documents obtained by Billboard, on Tuesday (May 30), a Manhattan federal judge denied adidas’ request for an emergency order to re-freeze $75million held by Kanye West’s Yeezy brand.
The German shoe giant’s attorneys argued that without such an order it would suffer “irreparable harm,” but the judge was unconvinced. “It is hereby ordered that … adidas’ motion for a TRO is denied,” the court documents read.
On the other hand, while this is a loss for adidas, Tuesday’s ruling only denied the emergency motion; adidas can still win a more conventional order in the coming days reimposing an asset freeze on Yeezy.
Both sides are due to file briefs on that request by Thursday (June 1).
Adidas ended its long-term partnership with West last October — Since then the shoe giant’s has blamed Kanye directly for the financial loss that came as a result of the brand severing their deal, which so far is estimated to be around $1.3 billion in 2023.