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Flo Rida Sues Celsius Drink Company Over 1% Equity Stake Promise and Gets $82 Million Payout

Flo Rida Sues Celsius Drink Company Over 1% Equity Stake Promise and Gets $82 Million Payout

Flo Rida

Flo Rida promotes Celsius energy drink in November 2022. (Twitter @official_flo)

Flo Rida is probably embodying the words to his “Good Feeling” song after being awarded over $82 million in damages in his lawsuit against Celsius energy drinks for breaching their contract with him.

“I just want to say God is good in Jesus’ Name,” Flo Rida said at a press conference after his trial ended. He accentuated his comments by taking a sip of a Celsius energy drink.

The Carol City native, whose real name is Tramar Dillard, sued the company in 2021, alleging it failed to honor its agreement to offer him stock options if the company hit certain sales milestones.

“It was specifically contemplated that as Celsius profited in the future, additional compensation would be paid by Celsius in the form of shares of company stock and ongoing royalties,” the lawsuit said. 

Flo Rida signed a deal with Celsius in 2014 and renewed it in 2016. At the time, the company was struggling and trading at $1 per share. After enlisting the veteran hip-hop artist to serve as their “global brand ambassador,” the company’s sales skyrocketed.

According to a report by Markets Insider, Celsius shares were recently trading at over $100, but the stock tumbled 12 percent after the jury’s verdict was announced. The company also made over $130 million in revenue in 2020, the Miami New Times reported.  

The “Low” rapper was promoting Celsius as recently as November 2022. His attorneys argued that his promotion of the company led to its eventual success.

“Show me how fit y’all been living by sending me any pics, videos, interviews, articles, podcasts, social media posts, with me drinking Celsius or us showing Celsius love,” Flo Rida tweeted on Nov. 1, 2022, along with a photo of himself holding one of the energy drinks. “Post your pics, tweets, concert videos etc in the comments.”

Singer Doja Cat also called Celsius “Flo Rida’s energy drink” during an interview in 2019. “I’m advertising Flo Rida’s energy drink right now,” Doja Cat said. “But I had this thing called Celsius, it’s like 250 milligrams of caffeine, so I drank it and man, I’ve never been that hyper, I think, in my entire life.”

According to Flo Rida’s attorneys, Celsius was supposed to give the MC a 1 percent equity stake and owed him half a million in stock shares, but they failed to notify him once they met the agreed-upon benchmarks.

“He’s entitled to 500,000 shares of stock via the contract, and entitled to 250,000 shares of stock if certain things happen — one of those yardsticks is that a certain number of units of products need to be sold, but unfortunately, the contract doesn’t specify which type of unit — is it a box, is it a drink? And there’s no timeframe or deadline,” said John Uustal, one of Flo Rida’s attorneys.

The total amount of the jury award was $82,640,450, Forbes reported. However, in closing arguments, Flo Rida’s attorneys said he would have preferred his 1 percent equity stake over a one-time cash award.

“In Flo’s mind, this was always a Vitamin Water type of deal. He was signing on to 1 percent of the company of a multi-million dollar endorsement deal and was hardly getting paid anything for it,” Uustal told Insider.

Twitter users praised Flo Rida’s business savvy and marveled at the jury award.

“Flo Rida won an $82.6M lawsuit against Celsius energy drinks. He wasn’t compensated fairly as brand ambassador,” Trapital founder Dan Runcie tweeted, “When he started endorsing in 2014, Celsius was a penny stock. Now, stock price is ~$100. Market cap $7.5B. Wow. That’s a come up right there.”

“Imagine breaching a contract so bad that someone who initially sued for $30,000 ends up being awarded $82 million. It’s giving Beyoncé pay me in equity vibes,” Dare Obasanjo wrote.

Another user noted that Flo Rida seems to stay winning, so he must have God’s hand on him.

“Flo Rida ain’t dropped an album in 11 years and still gets 24 million plays a month. Then dude wins a 82 million dollar lawsuit against Celsius. Bro gotta be Gods favorite,” @AndersonSyrus wrote.