Earlier this week, The Trade argued that the PDD-Shein rivalry was worth keeping an eye on. PDD is a Chinese language firm that owns the well-known Pinduoduo e-commerce enterprise in addition to Temu, a reduction on-line retailer that has seen fast development within the U.S. market lately.
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Our publish was well-timed. Two days after our brief look into the rivalry, Temu filed suit towards Shein. It was not the primary time the corporate has performed so. Earlier this yr, the 2 corporations had sued one another solely to dismiss the lawsuits in October. Now Temu is again with a contemporary lawsuit that alleges a battery of unlawful acts by Shein.
How did we go from the 2 corporations dropping their dueling lawsuits to yet one more swimsuit? Per the criticism, for the reason that time when the primary fits have been dismissed, “Temu has discovered that Shein’s anticompetitive behavior has not only persisted but intensified,” the corporate claims. It’d be helpful to recall at this level that Temu’s guardian firm PDD recently overtook Alibaba in market cap, and Shein wants to go public in the United States.
A Shein spokesperson advised TechCrunch+ that the corporate “believe[s] this lawsuit is without merit and will vigorously defend” itself.
What does Temu say Shein is as much as?
The swimsuit’s claims are different. Some cope with Temu’s view that Shein is submitting a myriad of “dubious copyright infringement lawsuits” towards it and alleges that the latter is issuing “voluminous, bad-faith DMCA takedown notices” towards its rival.
However that’s simply the beginning. Temu additionally alleges that Shein abuses its suppliers by leveraging what it considers a “monopoly power in the U.S. ultrafast fashion market” to enter into “Exclusive-Dealing Agreements with ultra-fast-fashion suppliers, and through those agreements Shein improperly seizes suppliers’ IP rights” in order that it will possibly forestall suppliers from itemizing and promoting comparable merchandise on Temu or different retail platforms.
