In a civil complaint filed on Monday, Chinese fast fashion giant Shein claims other Chinese fast fashion giant Temu should be held accountable for running “an unlawful enterprise built on counterfeiting, theft of trade secrets, infringement of intellectual property rights, and fraud as they seek to infiltrate the U.S. with their platform,” and accuses Temu of masquerading “as a legitimate e-commerce ‘marketplace.’”
Shein, coming in very hot within the first page of the complaint, claims that Temu “is not actually a ‘marketplace’ platform at all.”
“It controls every aspect of its sellers' activity. It directs what products they can list and the prices for which they can sell; encourages them to infringe the intellectual property rights of others; and even prevents them from removing their products from Temu's website after they have admitted to infringement. These are not the actions of a legitimate third-party ‘marketplace,’” Shein states.