Fast fashion feud: Temu files a lawsuit alleging rival Shein intimidated him in a “mafia-style” manner.

This week, a long-running legal battle between two massive fast-fashion brands reached a new low when Temu sued Shein for allegedly engaging in “mafia-style intimidation.”

The case was submitted to the District of Columbia U.S. District Court on Wednesday. Despite the fact that both businesses are based in China, WhaleCo, Temu’s parent company based in the United States, filed the lawsuit, claiming Shein has intimidated Temu staff members and suppliers and interfered with the e-commerce platform’s operations.

With Shein’s 2019 American launch and Temu’s 2022 launch, both brands have emerged as formidable competitors in the American market. Shein ruled the low-cost retail market before Temu entered the US, offering clothing and other lifestyle products at deeply reduced costs.

Both platforms offer low-cost, trendy products that are relatively similar, if not nearly identical, and ship most of their items from China. While it appears that some healthy rivalry between the two was unavoidable, Temu claims that Shein has not been playing fairly.

Temu sues Shein for alleged intimidation

Shein was charged in Wednesday’s lawsuit with “malicious and unlawful conduct intended to thwart Temu’s success,” according to court documents. Shein was also accused of using “mafia-style intimidation” tactics against Temu.

Shein is accused in part of the complaint of “falsely imprisoning merchants doing business with Temu,” holding them for hours in Shein’s offices, and threatening merchants who do business with Temu. Shein was also charged with abusing U.S. copyright laws through filing false lawsuits alleging copyright infringement, sending out takedown requests in bad faith, and forcibly obtaining intellectual property rights in order to obtain false copyright registrations.

Temu claims in the lawsuit that these occurrences have become more frequent in anticipation of the Super Bowl LVIII advertising campaign, which is scheduled for February 2024 and is expected to increase traffic to Temu’s website.

“Shein has resorted to even more desperate and coercive measures, including physical detention of merchants who dare to work with Temu, personal threats, and illegal seizures of merchants’ personal devices to obtain access to the merchants’ Temu accounts and Temu’s confidential information and trade secrets,” the complaint states.

Previous Temu-Shein legal battles

Shein and Temu have filed several lawsuits against each other, this being the first.

Temu was sued by Shein in federal court last December for allegedly hiring social media influencers to make “false and deceptive statements” against Shein in an effort to damage the company’s reputation.
Then, in July, Temu filed a second lawsuit in federal court against Shein, charging the rival with breaking antitrust laws by employing monopolistic tactics to keep rivals out of the fast fashion industry.

Then, in July, Temu filed a second lawsuit in federal court against Shein, charging the rival with breaking antitrust laws by employing monopolistic tactics to keep rivals out of the fast fashion industry.

“Shein was and is a monopolist,” the lawsuit claims, having dominated almost the whole ultra-fast fashion market in the U.S. between early 2020 and Temu’s entry in late 2022. In an attempt to keep Temu’s fierce competition from entering the market, Shin has tried to preserve its monopoly through anticompetitive tactics.

Despite being well-liked due to their incredibly low costs, both brands have faced criticism from the public on several occasions as shoppers struggle with the moral and ethical shortcomings of fast fashion. The congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has criticized both for their widespread use of forced labor, exploitation, poor product safety, and theft of intellectual property.