Twitter has been in a weird place since Elon Musk’s takeover. It’s no surprise that Musk, someone who appreciates the power of branded merchandise – as evidenced by the abundance of solid Tesla products – has been ordering promotional products for his new Twitter.
However, a lawsuit filed last month in the Superior court of California, Canary Marketing claims that Twitter hasn’t paid for $400,000 worth of branded merchandise.
According to the lawsuit, Canary and Twitter have been working together since 2013. Over that time, Canary has sold Twitter more than $10 million in branded products.
Further, Canary claims that starting in September 2022, Twitter stopped paying its invoices.
“Twitter never complained about the quality of Canary’s services or materials, and Twitter never communicated any objections to any invoices. Twitter simply stopped paying. The amount now owing from Twitter to Canary is $392,801.63.”
One invoice alone from September to November was $246,801, according to The Register.
Another was a $6,783.99 “Swag Gift box for Elon” sent to Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters, with some high-priced items. It included two branded bomber jackets ($1,000), two branded T-shirts ($550), socks ($260), a cheese board ($585), cheese ($215), Nikka Whiskey ($689), a cocktail shaker ($129.99), a moon ice mold ($148), a branded magnetic box ($795), and more.
The Register also reported that most of these items came with a set-up charge ranging from $85 to $125.
The rest of Canary’s lawsuit claims it was not paid for items like T-shirts, hoodies, socks, and stickers in large quantities with high packaging and shipping costs.
Whether or not Elon Musk himself is telling the company to stop paying the invoices is obviously not clear. Either way, it’s a bad look for him as the new leader.
