The action alleges that the New Albany, Ohio-based company refuses to hire non-white employees and passively terminates current employees who are minorities by giving them zero hours on the work schedule because they do not promote the "A&F Look." That "look" is alleged to be a virtually all-white image that Abercrombie uses to market its clothing, but it results in discriminatory employment policies and practices. The action further alleges that the few minorities the company does hire are channeled to stock room and overnight shift positions and away from visible sales positions, keeping them out of the public eye.

Eduardo Gonzalez, a Stanford student from Hayward, California, allegedly applied to work in the Abercrombie store in Valley Fair Mall in Santa Clara. The manager there allegedly suggested that he work in the stock room or on the late night crew in a non-sales position. He then allegedly went across the mall and was hired as a sales associate at a Banana Republic store where he has been working successfully in sales for almost a year at the time of the filling of the action.

Anthony Ocampo, a Filipino-American and a recent Stanford graduate, allegedly worked during the Christmas holidays at the Abercrombie Store in Glendale, California, his hometown. When he went to reapply for a summer job, he allegedly was told he couldn't be hired because there were already too many Filipinos working in the store.

The action alleges that Jennifer Lu worked at Abercrombie's Crystal Court Mall store in Costa Mesa, California, for three years while she was a student at U.C. Irvine. Abercrombie's corporate representatives allegedly came to the store on an inspection tour, pointed to a picture of a white male model and told the manager that he needed to make the store "look more like this." Within two weeks, five Asian American employees, including Ms. Lu, were terminated and an African American Brand Representative was transferred to the night shift at a different store. The store then allegedly hired five white Brand Representatives to replace them.

In September 2001, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found that the preponderance of the evidence supported Abercrombie employee Juancarlos Gomez-Montejano's claim he was terminated because of his national origin. Evidence obtained during the course of that investigation revealed that Latinos and Blacks, as a class, were denied permanent positions, denied assignments, and treated in an unfair manner with regard to recruitment based on their race and national origin.

The action further claims that Abercrombie, which operates 602 U.S. stores with a workforce of 22,000, identifies specific colleges, fraternities and sororities from which to recruit sales help. The company allegedly publishes and distributes to workers a "Look Book" that explains the importance of the appearance policy and closely regulates workers' appearance. The action further alleges that each store is required to send a photograph of 10 employees who fit the "look" to headquarters. Photos of employees, who "are almost invariably white," are then disseminated to all stores.

Abercrombie's retail chain stores allegedly use visual media--including wall-sized photographs of models, the A&F Quarterly magazine, and a television program played on a loop--as well as overwhelmingly white Brand Representatives on the sales floor to promote the "A&F Look" and image to employees, customers, and potential applicants. The action alleges that this promotion of the image facilitates Abercrombie's discriminatory employment practices.

The company has been accused of racial insensitivity in the past. In 2002, the company pulled T-shirts from its shelves after Asian-American groups protested against their caricatured depictions of slant-eyed men in conical hats with the slogan "Wong Brothers Laundry Service--Two Wongs Can Make it White." Abercrombie, which has also generated controversy with its sexually suggestive catalogs, faced a protest in mid-2003 from parent and Christian groups for marketing children's thong underwear with the words "kiss me" and "wink wink."