A US district court has ruled that the Kardashian sisters cannot rely on a contract between two other parties to compel private arbitration in a dispute over their use of the Khroma brand name.

The dispute revolves around the Kardashian’s cosmetics line, marketed under the brand name Khroma Beauty by Boldface Licensing & Branding. Cosmetics company Lee Tillett has marketed cosmetics under the brand name Kroma since 2004, and granted an exclusive license to Jay Willey Ltd, an entity owned by an officer of Kroma Makeup EU, to be the exclusive distributor of Kroma Products in the European Union.

Kroma Makeup EU sued both Boldface for trademark infringement, seeking to make the Kardashian’s secondarily liable for any infringement, and the creator of the Kroma brand name, Tillett, alleging breach of contract.

The court ruled that the contract between Kroma Makeup and Tillett required any disputes to be submitted to mandatory arbitration, but as the Kardashians were not party to the contract, they could not rely on the private arbitration clause.