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LPP has sued for infringement of personal rights

LPP has sued for infringement of personal rights

• Further to press articles compromising the good name of LPP published on 22 March by the editorial office of an online edition of Newsweek, the company has filed a lawsuit in the Regional Court in Gdańsk.

• The amount in dispute is PLN 3,000,000. By decision of LPP, once the judgment becomes final, the claimed amount shall be donated for social purpose and support medical and care facilities in Gdańsk.

• In the face of the coronavirus epidemics, from the very beginning it has been the company’s intention to help those who need it most – first in China and now in Poland.

The Polish clothing company has sued Newsweek weekly publisher – Ringier Axel Springer Polska, editor-in-chief of Newsweek.pl – Aleksandra Karasińska and the authors of the article – Wojciech Cieśla and Julia Dauksza – for infringement of personal rights. This is the result of the editorial staff spreading false statements and suggestions for actions taken by LPP, related to the purchase of protective masks for people affected by the Covid-19 epidemic in China at the turn of January and February 2020.

The subject of the dispute are the articles published on 22 March this year in the online edition of Newsweek, which, in the opinion of the Management Board of LPP, unjustifiably question the intentions of the company at the moment of providing assistance to its employees, diplomatic missions, as well as to Poles stationed in China, with whom these missions have been in constant contact, and finally to the company’s long-term Chinese business partners.

In our opinion, the activity of the editors describing the aid action for China at the beginning of the epidemic was biased and, above all, highly unreliable. It misled the public. Suggesting that our company acted only in the interest of securing its own benefits is unfounded and depreciates our charitable activities, and most importantly, it compromises the good name of our company. That is why we could not remain indifferent to such unfair practices on the part of the editorial office – comments Sławomir Łoboda, Vice President of the Management Board of LPP.

The company is demanding that the amount of PLN 3,000,000 be awarded, which, after the court’s judgment becomes final, will be donated for a social purpose. The beneficiaries of this amount will be the Nicolaus Copernicus Hospital in Gdańsk and the Gdańsk Hospice Foundation, which will receive PLN 1,500,000 each, respectively. In addition to the financial claims where the amounts will be donated to a charitable cause, LPP also demands that the editors be obliged to remove all articles published on 22 March, publish an apology by all defendants individually and that dissemination of claims suggesting that the company’s stance in this case is false be banned.

Social activity is a natural part of our business, so we always try to respond to the most pressing needs and provide real help to those who need it most. At the beginning of the year, when we all thought of the epidemic as the Asian countries’ problem, we responded to the appeal of our employees and partners in China immediately. Today help is needed here in Poland and despite the difficult situation of the whole company, we cannot imagine that such a gesture of support would be lacking – adds Sławomir Łoboda.

As part of LPP’s activities supporting the fight against the effects of the epidemic, the company has already donated 250 thousand protective masks to nearly 100 medical facilities. The support has been provided to isolation-only hospitals designated for COVID-19 patients, isolation hospitals and other health care centres not only from Pomerania or Małopolska, but also to other regions of our country, such as Warsaw, Wrocław, Łódź, Bydgoszcz, Kielce or Białystok. At the same time, the company from Gdańsk decided to donate 10 percent of its sales turnover from the spring Joyful#EcoAware collection by Reserved and 10 percent of the sales of the ECOAware line of Mohito collection. LPP’s involvement in the aid action in connection with the coronavirus epidemic takes various forms. The employees of the Gdańsk company sew cotton masks and overalls for non-medical staff of hospitals in Pomerania and Małopolska. Moreover, LPP provided 100 computers for young residents of children’s homes so that they could continue their education remotely.

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LPP SA is a Polish family business and one of the fastest growing clothing companies in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. For over 25 years it has been successfully operating in Poland and abroad, offering its collection already on 25 markets, including in such prestigious capitals as London, Berlin, Tel Aviv or Moscow. LPP SA manages five fashion brands: Reserved, Cropp, House, Mohito, and Sinsay. The company has a chain of over 1700 stores with the total area of over 1 million sq.m. The online offer of the brands collections is available on 30 markets. LPP plays an important role as it employs over 25 thousand people in its offices and sales structures in Poland, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The company is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in the WIG20 index and belongs to the prestigious MSCI Poland index.