Barneys New York has agreed to pay $525,000 to settle accusations that the luxury emporium disproportionately targeted minorities shopping at its Madison Avenue flagship and will overhaul its detention policies and give staff more training, in the hopes of getting closer to ending an embarrassing episode.
The settlement with New York State?s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is the culmination of a nine-month investigation stemming from accusations by two black shoppers that they were falsely accused of credit card fraud while shopping at Barneys last year. Several customers and former employees complained to the Attorney General?s office that some store guards systematically singled out minority shoppers for extra scrutiny including following them around, and that in-store detectives disproportionately asked sales staff who handled minority customers? transactions to inquire about their credit card use.
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