In her lawsuit, Shein claims that Temu, owned by PDD Holdings, is “disguising itself” as a legitimate online marketplace
Other charges
As the two companies vie for market share, they have gone to court to accuse each other of a series of scandalous allegations. Last year, Temu sued Shein over copyright issues and claimed it uses “mafia-style intimidation of suppliers” to get exclusivity deals.
In Shein's complaint, the company accused Temu of “brazen” illegal conduct. It said at least one of Temu's employees stole “valuable trade secrets” related to Shein's best-selling products, along with internal pricing information, to bolster its bid to compete.
« Armed with this stolen information, Temu then directed its sellers to copy these and other best-selling Shein products and sell knockoffs on Temu's website and mobile app,” the complaint states.
“Temu is not a habitual offender,” the lawsuit states. “In order to advertise counterfeit versions of Shein products, Temu reproduced nearly identical images of copyrighted Shein products and used them, or instructed sellers to use them, as promotional images on its website and mobile app.”
The company goes so far as to say that Temu falsely pretended to be Shein on social networking site X in an attempt to “pull customers from the Shein platform to the Temu platform.”
The complaint includes a screenshot screenshot of a Temu-sponsored Google ad that features Shein in the headline but Temu as the web address.
“To further deceive consumers, Temu has instructed its paid social media influencers networking to falsely claim that Temu products, which are often knockoffs of Shein products, are cheaper and of higher quality than genuine Shein products,” the complaint states.
Shein's 80-page complaint includes more than a dozen examples of clothes and designs that Temu allegedly copied.
She has asked the court, among other things, to rule in her favor and issue an injunction prohibiting Temu from using Shein's confidential information.< /p>
moneyreview.gr with information from CNBC
