According to reports, the Eastern Branch of the Federal District Court in Northern Illinois recently issued TRO (Temporary Restraint Order) to 31 merchants. This measure aims to stop these merchants’ infringement of Shein and freeze their account funds. Most merchants are located on the Temu platform.
Looking back at the history of disputes between Shein and Temu, as early as December 2022, Shein filed a lawsuit in the US court, accusing Temu of trademark and copyright infringement and related “false and deceptive business practices”. Subsequently, in August 2023, Shein obtained a temporary restraining order against Temu in the Eastern Branch of the Federal District Court in Northern Illinois, forcing it to stop continuously infringing Shein’s copyright. Court documents exposed Temu’s repeated plagiarism of Shein’s clothing design in infringement, turned a deaf ear to Shein’s copyright notice (DMCA notice), and even put the fine-tuned infringing products back on the shelves.
In December, 2023 and January, 2024, Shein further won several temporary restraining orders from American courts. These restraining orders covered hundreds of infringing products of Shein, which mainly appeared on the Temu platform, covering many categories including men’s wear, casual wear, sportswear and children’s wear.
While Shein continued to protect its own brand, Temu also tried to fight back by law. In July 2023, Temu filed a lawsuit in the federal court in Boston, USA, accusing Shein of using its dominant market position to hinder suppliers from cooperating with Temu, which was suspected of violating the US antitrust law. In October of the same year, both Shein and Temu decided to withdraw the relevant litigation in the United States. However, only two months later, the media reported that Temu had filed a new lawsuit against Shein in the United States, accusing Shein of monopolistic behavior again.
Faced with these allegations, people close to Shein once told the media: Temu has not only copied Shein’s own brand products on a large scale and continued unfair competition, but also reversed black and white, and thieves shouted to catch thieves in an attempt to retaliate and discredit with malicious lawsuits. SHEIN will never compromise this despicable behavior and will actively respond to the lawsuit and resolutely safeguard its legal rights through legal means.
In addition to the above-mentioned ban won in the United States, in Britain, Shein also won the legal victory against Temu. The temporary injunction issued by the Commercial and Property Division of the High Court of England and Wales requires Temu to stop using all the pictures in which Shein has copyright. In the latest ruling, the British court made it clear that the scope of application of the ban includes all the pictures of Shein, and Shein can complain about the pictures taken by Shein independently, suppliers and photography agencies. This ruling not only supports Shein’s claim to the supplier’s pictures, but also emphasizes the unanimous position of the judicial systems in Britain and the United States in protecting copyright.
Speaking of this, I have to popularize the model of Shein. Although they are all cross-border e-commerce platforms, in addition to the products of third-party sellers, the Shein platform also has a large number of self-owned brand products, and its 11 independent brands include Shein, a clothing brand of the same name that has surpassed ZARA and H&M and is deeply loved by European and American consumers. On the Temu platform, products are sold by third parties.
The above dispute between Shein and Temu actually involves only Shein’s own brand products. Shein accused Temu of plagiarizing its own brand products; Temu fought back with antitrust lawsuits. So far, several temporary restraining orders issued by British and American courts have supported Shein’s claim to protect its own brand.
The legal dispute between Shein and Temu also reflects the challenges encountered by cross-border e-commerce platforms in the process of global market expansion. With the rapid development of platforms such as Shein and Temu, they have launched fierce competition in the United States, Britain, Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin America and other global markets. These legal struggles not only extend commercial competition, but also remind us of the importance of compliance management in the cross-border e-commerce industry. Although the Temu model provides a broad platform for third-party sellers, it is also accompanied by a high risk of infringement, especially sellers should be cautious and not be misled.
The case of Shein and Temu reminds all cross-border operators that compliance management is not only a legal requirement, but also the key to protect their long-term development.
Post time: Mar-12-2024