• Swedish clothing retailer H&M says it had the legal right to sell Justin Bieber merchandise.
• Merchandise was removed from stores this week after the pop star claimed he had not given permission.
• Items were hoodies, t-shirts, and sweatshirts with lyrics from his songs.

Swedish clothes retailer H&M (HMb.ST) said on Thursday it had the rights to sell Justin Bieber merchandise it pulled from stores this week after the popstar said he had not given his approval.

“Justin’s license holder has confirmed that H&M had the right contracts in place and followed all proper approval procedures for each selected design,” H&M wrote in a statement.

On Monday, Bieber urged his 270 million Instagram followers not to buy the merchandise, calling it “trash” and said it was on sale without his approval. H&M pulled the items from the sale.

“Out of respect for Justin, we removed the products from our site and stores, and we’re working to find the best way to make use of them,” H&M said, adding that the company had been Bieber’s merchandise partner since 2016.

H&M, the world’s second-biggest fashion retailer, offered hoodies, t-shirts, and sweatshirts with pictures of Bieber or quotes from his lyrics such as “I miss you more than life” from the song “Ghost”.

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