Simona Halep, lawsuit with the company that produced the contaminated supplement. Seek $10 million in damages

Simona Halep sued Canadian company Quantum Nutrition, which supplied the roxadustat-contaminated supplement and led to her suspension for doping. The athlete filed a lawsuit against the Canadian firm in a New York court, Reuters news agency reported, quoted by News.ro.

Simona Halep, 32, said she used Schinoussa supplements from Canadian firm Quantum Nutrition during the 2022 US Open tournament, and the Keto MCT supplement she took was contaminated with roxadustat, which is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances.

The two-time Grand Slam champion said she had never used banned substances and that Quantum’s negligence and false claims that his supplement was legal had damaged her career and caused her humiliation.

Halep is seeking more than $ 10 million in damages from Canadian firm Quantum Nutrition in a lawsuit filed in a New York court in Manhattan.

In October, the founder of the Canadian company told Canada’s The Globe and Mail newspaper that Halep was looking for a scapegoat and that her company had been made a “scapegoat.”

Halep awaits verdict from TAS

Simona Halep is currently awaiting a verdict from the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, where she challenged the four-year suspension imposed last September. The hearings ended a week ago and the decision is now awaited, but it is not clear when it will come.

“I can’t tell you anything about what was at the hearing, but I can say that this hearing gave me a chance to present the defense. I want to tell you that my confidence is intact as far as the truth is concerned. I am very confident that the truth will come out and it will be proven that I never intended to dope, nor have I ever doped,” Halep said.

Simona Halep was initially provisionally suspended by the International Tennis Integrity Agency after testing positive at the 2022 US Open. She was found guilty of two violations of anti-doping regulations, the use of a banned substance, roxadustat, and a “prohibited method/substance” during the 2022 season, a conclusion reached by ITIA experts based on data from her biological passport.

In September 2023, the International Tennis Integrity Agency announced that an independent tribunal had suspended Halep for four years.