PARIS — In the latest round of a long-standing legal dispute between Hedi Slimane and Kering, the Paris commercial court has ordered the luxury group to pay 40,000 euros.
Slimane was creative and image director of Kering-owned Yves Saint Laurent for four years starting in 2012.
The court ruled on Dec. 3 that the luxury group should pay Slimane and his company Analytic Project, which manages his commercial rights, 20,000 euros each, according to court documents. Meanwhile, it rejected Slimane’s requests for a civil fine against Kering and for interest damages.
Slimane’s tenure at Kering ended in April 2016, and he took the group to court the following month, winning a $13 million award related to the application of the non-compete clause of his contract, which had been lifted by the luxury group. At the time, Kering indicated it would appeal the decision, while noting in a statement that the dispute did not change its recognition of the high-profile designer’s contribution to the transformation of the brand.
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Non-compete obligations are standard clauses for executive and creative roles in fashion, adding restrictions for up to a year or more, and serving to protect firms against poaching from rivals.
In a separate case, Slimane also took Kering to court in a case related to an elaborate compensation scheme related to his last year working at Saint Laurent, winning 9.3 million euros in April 2018, which Kering at the time said it planned to appeal.
In November 2016, Slimane won a battle to gain access to financial information as a minority shareholder in Saint Laurent.
In a separate decision related to this minority shareholding in Saint Laurent, the Paris commercial court on Dec. 3 also ordered Kering to pay an additional 50,000 euros related to costs of the case, according to AFP. This would bring the total award on Dec. 3 to 90,000 euros.
Slimane’s lawyer, Léon del Forno of the Temime law firm, declined to comment; Kering declined to comment.
The designer, who bolstered the popularity of slim tailoring during his tenures at Saint Laurent and, before that, Dior Homme, has been working for Celine since 2018, charged with rebooting the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned label and extending it into men’s wear.