H&M (OTC: HNNMY) recently announced the fashion brand will no longer be selling Justin Bieber's items after he informed them that he does not approve of the clothing line's representation of him anymore. "The H&M merch they made of me is trash and I didn't approve it," Bieber said in an Instagram (NASDAQ: META) post. "Don't buy it."
According to H&M, however, Bieber's statements were untrue, as reported by BuzzFeed News. But the company still respected Bieber's feelings about the products. "As with all other licensed products and partnerships, H&M followed proper approval procedures. Out of respect for the collaboration and Justin Bieber, we have removed the garments from our stores and online."
An H&M representative also informed CNBC that it has removed all products from the clothing line (T-shirts, hoodies, tote bags, phone accessories, etc.). Some of the products that Bieber had featured from H&M were items that said "I miss you more than life" (a song lyrics from his 2021 album "Ghost").
"Justin's license holder has confirmed that H&M had the right contracts in place and followed all proper approval procedures for each selected design," H&M said in a statement to the LA Times. The company also claimed that it is "working to find the best way to make use" of the previous Bieber items.
Although it is apparent that Bieber did not claim to approve of the merchandise that H&M was selling, H&M believes otherwise. It can be very dangerous territory to obtain permissions from fashion brands in terms of licensing. But from H&M's perspective, the permissions to release Justin Bieber's merchandise could have still been obtained both properly and legally, even if accessed from a third party.
According to HighSnobiety, "To whit, it's not impossible to believe that H&M went through the proper channels to procure rights for Bieber's image - from, say, the pop star's record label or the photographer who owns the photos H&M used - without Bieber being clued in, and it'd all be perfectly legal."