China Times, August 21, 2024
by Chen Yi-Jun
Chinese fast fashion giant Shein filed a lawsuit against rival Temu in a federal court in Washington, D.C. on the 19th, accusing the latter of design theft, counterfeiting, intellectual property infringement, and fraud.
However, Shein has previously faced similar allegations from brands such as Levi Strauss and H&M.
In the lawsuit, Shein accused Temu, a subsidiary of Pinduoduo (PDD), of “disguising” itself as a legitimate online platform, encouraging sellers to steal other brands’ designs, and then preventing these sellers from removing their products from the platform, even after the sellers have admitted to infringement.
Shein pointed out that “Temu attracts American consumers to download and use its mobile app at extremely low prices. However, Temu does not profit from these products because the prices are so low that Temu has to sell at a loss with each transaction. Therefore, the only way to minimize losses from subsidies is to encourage its sellers to infringe on other companies’ intellectual property and sell counterfeit or inferior products.”
Shein also mentioned that at least one Temu employee had stolen trade secrets, including Shein’s best-selling products and internal pricing information.
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