A simmering battle between fast-fashion giants Temu and Shein has taken a fresh twist with the latter launching a fresh legal attack on its competitor in the US.
In a complaint filed in the District Court of Columbia, Temu parent PDD Holdings is accused of masquerading as a legitimate marketplace while allegedly controlling what products sellers can list and encouraging them to infringe intellectual property rights.
Shein claims its trademarks are used in sponsored ads by Temu and to create fake social media accounts to mislead customers.
The writ alleges Temu directs sellers to copy Shein’s products and even provides them with copyrighted images for marketing.
"Temu has used the same illegal business model to build a massive counterfeiting and infringement machine in the US," Shein’s legal entity Roadget alleges in the court filings.
"Temu draws US consumers into downloading and using its mobile application with promises of extremely low pricing...Temu must subsidize each sale, losing money on every transaction."
Shein has also accused at least one Temu employee of stealing trade secrets to unlawfully compete with it, even accusing Temu of impersonating Shein on social media platform Twitter/X.
Shein is seeking compensation for lost sales, reputational harm and other financial losses.
The lawsuit comes as Shein attempts to clean up its image ahead of a planned initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange.
The amount of allegations against Shein are myriad, from using the Chinese Uyghur ethnic minority as slave labour to using Mafia-style intimidation on its suppliers.
On the latter, none other than Temu accused Shein in a 2023 lawsuit of “intimidation and detention scare tactics against suppliers who dare to sell to Temu, including false imprisonment and seizure of cell phones during meetings Shein calls on false pretences”.
There is no shortage of design infringement claims against Shein either.
In a recent example, Uniqlo alleged that Shein is selling imitations of its popular ‘Mary Poppins’ shoulder bag.
In July 2023, H&M sued Shein for copying its designs and in the same month, three US designers launched their own copycat claims.