An executive at Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton Inc. says she was harassed there for years by an ooh la louse — but higher-ups just chalked it up to French culture.
Plaintiff Andowah Newton, who worked out of the luxury goods brand’s New York office, says in a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed Tuesday that the firm convinced her “that the harassment was just a byproduct of being an attractive woman who works at a company with a French culture.”
She said company bigs asserted this despite the fact that “none of the individual actors in this matter is, in fact, French,” her suit says.
Newton claims her harasser — a “senior level management employee” whom she doesn’t name — frequently ogled her and once said, “You are so pretty. And that beautiful smile, I just can’t get enough of it,” according to court papers.
Another time, while talking with her in her office, he “lunged” across her desk to use her phone, “thrusting his pelvis and genitals into her face and pressing his body firmly against hers as he reached across her body for her phone,” the suit says.
Newton — who worked at the company for 16 years, eventually rising to vice president of Legal Affairs & Litigation Counsel — says she confronted the man in an email.
The company conducted a “sham” investigation, seeming more concerned with keeping its brand image safe than addressing the harassment, the court documents allege.
At one point, another company employee called the man’s behavior “mere flirting,” a “misunderstanding” or “miscommunication,” the papers state.
Company officials said an attempt by him to kiss her on the cheek as a greeting was “what executives do in a French company, suggesting that Ms. Newton was unfamiliar with French culture and should simply tolerate the behavior,” reads her the lawsuit.
But the suggestion that Newton doesn’t know French culture is “laughable” — since she worked and studied there for several years, the court documents say.
The company retaliated against Newton by promoting the man and suddenly giving her bogus bad work reviews, the court papers claim.
Newton’s lawyer, Carolynn Beck, said in a statement, “LVMH should be ashamed of itself for prioritizing its image above the safety of its employees.
“For years, my client, an exemplary, hardworking employee of LVMH, suffered unwanted sexual harassment and touching from another LVMH employee.”
Newton, who still works for the firm, is suing for unspecified damages and “hopes to promote change to the culture,” Beck said.
A rep with LVMH said the lawsuit has “no merit” and said when Newton raised the issue, the company “immediately conducted an internal investigation, as well as engaged a neutral, third party to conduct an external investigation” into the allegations.
“Neither of these investigations found any evidence to support Ms. Newton’s claims.”
The spokesperson also claimed the alleged harasser was just a staffer, not a senior-level employee.