Snoop Dogg, Master P suing Walmart, Post Foods, saying they sabotaged cereal deal
LOS ANGELES - Entertainers Snoop Dogg and Master P are suing Walmart and Post Foods for deceptive trade practices, saying the companies allegedly sabotaged a deal with the pair's own food company, keeping their products off the shelf.
Snoop Dogg, real name Calvin Broadus, and Master P, real name Percy Miller, founded Broadus Foods together in 2022. According to Ben Crump, who's representing the company, Broadus Foods was created to promote "diversity in the food industry and [provide] opportunities for minority-owned products."
The company launched Snoop Cereal last year, and partnered with Post Foods to sell their products in stores like Walmart. But, their complaint, filed Tuesday in a Minnesota court, alleges that Post Foods and Walmart intentionally sabotaged the deal, using "deceptive practices," to keep Snoop cereal off the shelves. Specifically, Crump claims that boxes of Snoop Cereal were kept only in the stockrooms, and were marked in the internal systems with a "no location" code, which meant that employees wouldn't put them on the shelves on the storeroom floor. In some instances, the complaint alleges, the store's website would list the product as sold out, while boxes were found in the stockrooms "for months without ever being made available to customers."
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The filing claims that this move came after Post tried to buy Snoop Cereal outright.
Essentially, because Snoop Dogg and Master P refused to sell Snoop Cereal in totality, Post entered a false arrangement where they could choke Broadus Foods out of the market, thereby preventing Snoop Cereal from being sold or produced by any competitor," the complaint reads.
"What I'm fighting for today, I'm fighting for justice in corporate America," said Master P. "Because we're saying, 'Corporate America, it's time to play fair.' I got my slingshot. I'm David, I'm going up against the giants."
The lawsuit also says that Post and Walmart are charging Snoop Dogg and Master P for boxes of cereal that didn't sell.
In a statement to FOX 11, a Walmart spokesperson said that the company "values our relationships with our suppliers, and we have a strong history of supporting entrepreneurs. Many factors affect the sales of any given product, including consumer demand, seasonality, and price to name a few. We will respond as appropriate with the Court once we are served with the complaint."
The full complaint can be read below: