Starbucks has been ordered by a federal jury in New Jersey, US, to pay $25.6 million (over Rs 209 crore) to a former regional manager, Shannon Phillips, after she alleged that the company fired her because she was white in the aftermath of a highly publicised incident in 2018, which had initially put the coffee chain giant under scrutiny for racial bias.

The incident occurred in a Starbucks store located in the Rittenhouse Square neighbourhood of Philadelphia in April 2018. Two African-American men had entered the store for a business meeting, but before ordering, one of them asked to use the restroom and was denied access.

Eventually, when they refused to leave, an employee called the police, resulting in their arrest. Videos capturing the arrests went viral, leading to widespread accusations of racism, protests, and threats of boycott against Starbucks.

The company's CEO at the time, Kevin Johnson, publicly apologised and described the treatment of the men as "reprehensible." To address the issue of racial bias, Starbucks took the unprecedented step of temporarily closing 8,000 stores to conduct racial bias training for its employees.

In this hearing, the jury found that Starbucks had violated the civil rights of Shannon Phillips, awarding her $600,000 in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages, New York Times reported.

Laura Carlin Mattiacci, Phillips' lawyer, expressed satisfaction with the unanimous verdict, stating that her client had provided "clear and convincing evidence" to warrant punitive damages under New Jersey law.

At the time of the incident, Shannon Phillips was overseeing around 100 Starbucks stores in the Philadelphia area and neighbouring regions. She claimed in her lawsuit that Starbucks, as part of its damage-control efforts, had sought to punish white employees, including herself, regardless of their involvement in the events leading to the arrests.

According to Phillips, she had actively engaged in the company's campaign to restore credibility by supporting hourly workers and coordinating store staffing during protests.

However, she alleged that one of her superiors, an African-American woman, instructed her to suspend a white manager based on false allegations of discriminatory conduct, while no action was taken against the Black manager responsible for the Rittenhouse Square store.

Shortly after refusing to suspend the white manager, Phillips claimed she was fired without prior indication of poor performance, with the explanation given that "the situation is not recoverable." Starbucks, on the other hand, denied that Phillips was terminated due to her race, asserting that she had performed poorly in response to the incident.

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Starbucks had ultimately decided not to press charges against the two men involved in the incident, Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson, and reached a confidential financial settlement with them. Additionally, the City of Philadelphia committed to investing $200,000 to support young entrepreneurs, as part of an agreement with the men.