Around 1.4 million people follow ‘Stylist-Entrepreneur-Champion’ Luka Sabbat, but an agency is suing the 20-year-old for not being influential enough.
You probably know him as Kourtney Kardashian’s ex, but PR Consulting were hoping he might become better known for his association with Snapchat. He was hired to promote Snap’s Spectacles, a product which launched in 2016 and failed to set the world on fire, which was a fortune that the agency was hoping to reverse with the help of Sabbat. However, Sabbat is now being sued to the tune of $90,000 (£69,292) for not living up to his side of the bargain.
A $45,000 (£34,646) deal was initially struck for the Sabbat to create one post and three short videos containing links to the product of himself wearing the Spectacles. The ‘influencer agreement’ stipulated that he would be paid a bonus $15,000 (£11,548) for wearing the glasses at Paris and Milan Fashion Week. As is normal in client-content creation contracts, the PR company also wanted to approve the imagery beforehand and receive data about the success rate of the posts afterwards.
The legal claim says Sabbat failed to hold up his side of the deal as he never wore the glasses in public and only made one post to his feed and one Instagram story, neither of which PR Consulting approved beforehand. Now the agency wants to be reimbursed the full fee plus another $45,000 in damages.
Snapchat have said they have nothing to do with the claim.
This case brings to light the fuzzy line of paying for influence. The advertising guidelines aren’t as strict for social media as they are for traditional sources, but this could be the case that induces watertight regulations.