Chinese e-commerce firm Shein said its rival Temu used thousands of its own pictures on its website to advertise similar or identical clothing items, as a legal dispute between the two companies opened Monday in London’s High Court.
Shein accused Temu of copyright infringement “on an industrial scale,” noting that its competitor is trying to “piggy-back” on its own investments, Reuters reported.
“This was an attempt to steal a march on an existing participant in the market and Temu has sought to obtain, we say, an unfair advantage,” Shein’s lawyer Benet Brandreth reportedly said.
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Denying this, Temu filed a countersuit saying Shein is using copyright allegations to undermine competition, noting that the case has “nothing to do with the protection of any intellectual creativity in photographs,” Bloomberg reported.
Temu said the merchants, who were responsible for the use of images, got the required consent. The company sought damages after having to remove its product listings when Shein got an injunction.
Neither company responded to a request for comment as of press time.
The case marked the latest legal battle between the two ultra-fast fashion e-commerce giants as they compete for a bigger slice of the global market.
But not all their legal battles are waged against each other. In April, they were both hit with class-action lawsuits demanding for compensation after they allegedly profited from raising prices in response to Trump’s post-“Liberation day” tariffs, which have now been determined unlawful.
