Groupon issued an apology after users complained about boots advertised as “n****r brown.”
The knock-off Ugg boots were sold by two third party sellers, Kojwa and Margines, who used “n****r brown” to describe one of the color options, reports Cosmopolitan.
Consumers began to complain about the issue on social media and used hashtags like #shutdowngroupon.
I can’t believe @Groupon has a woman’s boot called “Nigger-Brown”. What type of color exactly is “Nigger-Brown”? Groupon has some explaining to do. #ShutdownGroupon
pic.twitter.com/X2viGvmtMJ— CJ James (@MrCJamesJr) March 28, 2018
Can something be done about Groupon now? I found this on 2 of their listings yesterday. Wtf? pic.twitter.com/bPldafvpdS
— buttercup resistance (@cammarays) March 28, 2018
Groupon really has “nigger” as a color beloved. I can’t believe it!
— ???? (@vokarondon) March 28, 2018
Groupon took down the listing, and Bill Roberts, vice president of global communications, released a statement apologizing for the mishap:
“We are appalled that this language was displayed on our site,” Roberts said. “This product description was provided by a third-party seller via our self-service platform. Regardless, this is completely unacceptable and violates our policies — to say nothing of our values.”
Groupon also confirmed that they removed the sellers from their platform and promised some vague changes.
“When made aware of the issue, we immediately removed the deal — as well as the third-party seller — from our marketplace,” they continued. “Language like this has no place on Groupon, and we’re further strengthening our self-service controls to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
A Groupon spokesperson told Cosmo this has been an ongoing issue for the company, thanks to "Chinese-based enterprises," and they have to constantly monitor their listings.
“[Kojwa and Margines] are separate companies," said the spokesperson. “This is a known issue in the e-commerce space. We're determining why the deal slipped past the controls we have in place (we flag literally hundreds of terms and various permutations) and will make the necessary improvements."