Kendall Jenner Gets Sued For $1.8 Million

In a legal complaint filed at a New York City court on Monday, Aug. 2, the Italian company accuses the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star Kendall Jenner, of breaching the terms of a modeling contract by failing to appear at the second of two planned photo shoots, for which she was to be paid a total of $1.5 million, plus a 20 percent service fee. Kendall, who was the highest-paid model in the world in 2018 with $22.5 million in annual earnings, according to Forbes, has not addressed the allegations, but her model management company issued a statement denying the claims.

In its lawsuit, Liu Jo claims the 25-year-old star took part in the first shoot in July 2019 and that by February 2020, it had already paid her $1.35 million. The second shoot was set to take place in London in March 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic prohibited her from traveling.

The lawsuit states that the parties agreed to postpone the shoot to the fall, but did not confirm a new date. Kendall allegedly eventually “ceased responding to Liu Jo” until the company “informed her that it considered her in breach of the contract and that, therefore, the contract was terminated, according to the documents. The complaint also claims it filed the complaint after “having no success in obtaining a refund” the supermodel allegedly owed.

A spokesperson for model management company The Society Management, which represents Kendall, told E! News, “This suit is without merit. The Society Management, on behalf of Ms. Kendall Jenner, has continually offered Liu Jo alternative dates and locations to fulfill an agreement that was forced to be delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.”

The statement continued, “Jenner has willingly offered to complete services honoring her commitments.”

Also in its lawsuit, Liu Jo said that after Kendall proposed to postpone the shoot to October, the company learned the model “would be traveling to Italy in September 2020 to perform a photo shoot for a different designer.” The complaint includes a link to a Metro U.K. article that contains photos of the model, appearing to show her arriving at a Versace shoot late that month. This year, Kendall appeared in ads for the luxury brand.

After Kendall allegedly “continued to fail to respond to urgent requests and communications relating to the logistics” of the proposed mid-October photo shoot, Liu Jo told her “she was in breach of her obligations under the agreement” and two days later, Kendall told the fashion corporation she was not in breach of the deal and that it was “impossible” for her to travel to Italy that fall, according to the complaint.

The company says in its filing that according to the terms of their contract, at least its first and second payments to the model must be refunded because she did not attend the second photo shoot and, the group alleges, it could also not be rescheduled to a mutually convenient date. The company is seeking at least $1.8 million in damages.

“Due to Ms. Jenner’s refusal to negotiate in good faith, Liu Jo was forced to find replacement models and restructure its entire Spring/Summer 2021 photoshoot [sic]—at great expense to Liu Jo,” the lawsuit states, “due to Ms. Jenner’s refusal to uphold her end of the bargain.”