Elizabeth Arden Loses The Britney Spears Fragrance Line, Sues Give Back Beauty
Revlon's Elizabeth Arden made millions selling Britney Spears' fragrances for two decades. Now it says its own employees stole the lucrative brand and took it to an upstart rival, Give Back Beauty.
In a statement to Billboard, Revlon stressed that the lawsuit did not accuse Spears or her team of wrongdoing and said “we value our 20-year partnership and wish Britney all the best.”
The case was filed on Aug. 26 in Manhattan federal court, attorneys for Revlon and Elizabeth Arden claim that four ex-staffers stole trade secrets and breached their contracts when they jumped ship to upstart rival Give Back Beauty and took the Spears account with them. “Revlon and Elizabeth Arden were completely unaware that Revlon’s own team was actively sabotaging one of their most valuable licensing relationships,” the company’s lawyers claim.
According to the lawsuit, Revlon had renewed its partnership with Britney every five years, and the current agreement was set to expire at the end of 2024. When negotiations began in late 2023, the company says it had “every expectation that the relationship would continue.”
Though Revlon says it struck a tentative deal with Britney’s team, the agreement had not been finalized in May 2024. Less than a month later, the lawsuit says, GBB inked its own deal with Britney. “The speed with which Britney Brands signed its deal with GBB was unprecedented for the Britney Brands organization and could not have been accomplished without the benefit of the Revlon employees’ deep knowledge of the misappropriated proprietary information about the relationship and GBB’s unlawful utilization of that information,” Revlon’s lawyers write.
“As a company, we will always take steps to protect our intellectual property,” Revlon continued. “We have filed this complaint because it became clear to us that GBB and the four former employees named in the suit unlawfully used Revlon’s proprietary information and trade secrets - and we are confident in the merits of our case.”
Give Back Beauty strongly denied the allegations: “The claims that Give Back Beauty engaged in any type of improper conduct are entirely without merit and are no way supported by the facts. We will defend both our company and our employees against these allegations and will respond more fully to them through the appropriate legal channels.”
According to a 2013 report, Spears' first fragrance - Curious - had sold more than 500 million bottles over its first decade, and the overall Spears-Arden partnership, was making about $30 million a year in sales.
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