QVC Group faces $30 million ‘unjustified termination’ lawsuit after report of potential bankruptcy
The lawsuit from a designer who had a 31-year on-air career was filed around the same time that Bloomberg reported the company was considering filing for bankruptcy.
QVC Group has been hit with a $30 million lawsuit amid broader financial problems for the West Chester-based home shopping network.
The company is considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to reorganize billions in debt, Bloomberg reported last week.
Antthony Mark Haskins, a Savannah, Ga.-based fashion designer who had a 31-year on-air career with HSN until he was terminated in July, filed the lawsuit last week against the network and its parent company, QVC Group, according to federal court documents.
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Haskins seeks at least $30 million in damages for what his attorneys describe in the documents as an “abrupt and unjustified termination” that “reflects a pattern of discriminatory treatment, retaliatory conduct, and operational mismanagement.” The lawsuit is filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
QVC Group spokespeople and general counsel did not return requests for comment. HSN operated out of a studio in St. Petersburg, Fla., until about a year ago, when it moved to QVC’s West Chester campus.
Between 2023 and 2025, HSN executives reduced Haskin’s airtime and decreased promotion of his brand, Antthony Design Originals, to focus on a “TikTok-centered business model,” according to the designer’s lawsuit. As a result, he says his gross sales last calendar year were $13.24 million, more than $2 million less than projected. When he was more supported by the network, he said, his sales outperformed expectations.
Haskins, who is Black, also says the company discriminated against him based on race, including by promoting him more heavily during Black History Month, firing him without cause, and immediately pulling him off the air despite decades of strong performance, according to the lawsuit.
In the documents, Haskins also alleges breach of contract, defamation, interference with third-party business relationships, and misappropriation of his name and likeness in advertisements.
In a Facebook post on his business page, Haskins said the lawsuit “is about standing up for the values my brand was built on, protecting my legacy, and ensuring that fairness and accountability matter — especially for creators who have given decades of their lives to their work.”
Haskins’ attorney, Samuel B. Fineman of Semanoff Ormsby Greenberg & Torchia in Huntingdon Valley, did not return a request for additional comment.
QVC has been based in West Chester for more than three decades, and merged with HSN as part of a $2 billion deal in 2017.
The networks’ parent company, which rebranded as QVC Group last year, has struggled recently amid stiff competition from e-commerce and social-media platforms like TikTok Shop.
Its revenue and operating income have been on the decline, and fewer people are shopping. As of September, about 7 million customers had made a purchase on the networks in the past year, down from 8.1 million in fiscal year 2023.
The company is set to release its fourth quarter 2025 earnings report next week.
According to Bloomberg’s report last week, company executives were talking with creditors about a potential bankruptcy, but had not made a decision on whether to file.
A search for “QVC Group” in online court records did not show any bankruptcy filings as of Wednesday.