The American Civil Rights Project (ACR Project) has filed a lawsuit against Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and other officials, accusing the coffee chain of racial discrimination, according to a press release from the US National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), which is a shareholder of Starbucks.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the US National Center for Public Policy Research.

“Yesterday, the American Civil Rights Project (ACR Project) sued Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and company officials and executives in Spokane, Washington… NCPPR’s lawsuit alleges Starbucks’ policies violate state and federal civil rights laws. The purpose of the statement is to prohibit Starbucks officials and executives from continuing to pursue a policy of racial discrimination and to hold them accountable for the harm these policies cause to shareholders.”

According to NCPPR Free Enterprise project lead Scott Shepard, Starbucks has "set targets" for the number of non-white employees, "these targets relate to executive compensation," Shepard said. In his opinion, this is "absolute racial discrimination."

From the company's reports it follows that its net profit for the first three quarters of the 2021/22 financial year (ended on July 3) amounted to $ 2.403 billion.

Starbucks, founded in 1971 in Seattle, operates a network of nearly 35,000 coffee shops around the world.