Fenty Beauty has a legal dilemma on its hands! Just when the brand goes quiet with the back-to-back product releases, it gets hit with some negative heat. Rihanna's beauty brand got slapped with a lawsuit for allegedly discriminating against people who are visually impaired, as reported by The Fashion Law.
The lawsuit was filed by Beatriz Gutierrez, who is legally blind, in California. The woman is frustrated that she is unable to effectively use the Fenty Beauty website to purchase products.
The woman claims that Fenty Beauty is guilty of "intentional discrimination."
Gutierrez uses screen-reading software to access the internet. Her filing states that FentyBeauty.com is “not fully accessible to screen-reading technology used by blind individuals.” Because of this limitation, she asserts that Fenty Beauty offers blind people “a second-class experience.” She's suing for monetary damages in the amount of $15,000.
According to California law, Fenty Beauty actually is required to provide website accessibility for people who are visually impaired.
California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act states that "all persons within the jurisdiction of this state are free and equal, and no matter what their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, primary language, or immigration status are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments of every kind whatsoever."
In the filings, Guiterrez asserts that Fenty Beauty has avoided creating blind accessibility even though it has the resources to provide it.
The court filing states that Fenty Beauty did not "make correct and proper use of alternative text, accessible forms, descriptive links, resizable text, and labels.” This is "despite readily available methods to render websites fully accessible to all,” according to the documents.
The Fashion Law reported that Gutierrez has filed similar lawsuits against a TON of brands for this same reason.
"Gutierrez – who has filed near-exact suits over the past six months against LVMH-owned brands Sephora and Brioni, Breitling, Net-a-Porter, Ferrari, Proenza Schouler, Isabel Marant, and Alexander Wang, among others," The Fashion Law reported.
That is A LOT of lawsuits. I cannot help but count up how much money it cost just to file them all because yeah, you have to pay to file a lawsuit although you could get the money back *if* you win. Gutierrez is obviously on a mission with this many lawsuits filed against brands.
If you recall, Kylie Cosmetics also caught a lawsuit for having a website that doesn't accommodate people who are visually impaired — though that one wasn't from Gutierrez.
Antoinette Suchenko, who also uses screen-reading software, sued Kylie Cosmetics in 2017. "In the suit, she says Kylie's cosmetics site isn't compatible [with the software]. As a result, she's having a hard time bagging any of Kylie's uber-popular makeup products," TMZ reported. This filing was especially valid since Kylie Cosmetics was only sold online in 2017. The brand only recently expanded to have its products available for purchase in physical Ulta stores.
Prior to that, Kylie Cosmetics products appeared in a few pop-up shops. Other than that, if you wanted Kylie Jenner's makeup, you needed to use her website to get it. That was obviously a bummer for people who are legally blind and unable to use her site.
With Gutierrez filing SO MANY lawsuits, it's easy to label her as money-hungry.
However, it's quite possible that she's sticking it to so many brands simply to raise awareness. More brands really should ensure their websites are accessible to people with different abilities. It's the law, but it's also the right thing to do.
Whether Gutierrez is money-hungry or not really doesn't matter here. She's obviously trying to make a statement, and even though brands probably would have preferred that she do so with a petition, or literally anything else that doesn't drag them into court and cost them money — the statement still stands. Visually impaired people should be able to shop on the internet like everyone else.
But who really wants to see Rihanna's already iconic beauty brand get sued?
It does suck that Fenty Beauty dropped the ball where accessibility is concerned. Let's hope that Rihanna gets this all straightened out with Gutierrez. Hopefully, Fenty Beauty becomes accessible with the screen-reading software as soon as possible. It also wouldn't hurt if Fenty Beauty reached out to Gutierrez personally to take her order and send her a bag of additional goodies to enjoy.
Fenty Beauty is supposed to be for everyone, right?
