Courts

This Federal Charge Isn't Just For Mobsters And Rappers Anymore

You'll never guess what SHEIN has in common with Young Thug. 

By  
on
pickpocket steal theft money wallet cheat

It’s like this, but with shirt designs.

SHEIN has been making a name for itself in the world of fast fashion. It went from a place to get cheap clothes for a festival to being that one company that got an influencer to gentrify sweatshops. That move went poorly. Very poorly. They’re now doing what any company enmeshed in controversy would do — branching out. Not on their accord though; their newest venture is into law. Specifically, copyright infringement and racketeering. From The Independent:

According to The Fashion Law, a lawsuit was filed on Tuesday (11 July) in California federal court that accused the clothing giant of using a “secretive algorithm” to identify trending art and allegedly reproducing the independent designs for its fast fashion website.

…

The plaintiffs claim that Shein’s “confusing corporate structure” allows the company to “avoid liability” in the case of intellectual property infringement, adding that the brand’s “first line of defense” when facing a copyright or trademark cease and desist is “removing the product from its sites with blaming the misconduct on another [Shein entity] actor (implying such actor is independent).”

Now, there is no doubt in my mind that the fashion police need to handcuff whoever is responsible for this SHEIN monstrosity, but RICO? Isn’t that a charge targeted toward criminal organizations…? That’s where the copyright infringement comes in:

The three independent artists suing Shein – Krista Perry, Larissa Martinez, and Jay Baron – claimed both Shein and its parent company, Zoetop Business Company, Ltd, engaged in “produc[ing], distribut[ing], and selling exact copies of their creative works,” which they allege is “part and parcel of Shein’s ‘design’ process and organizational DNA.”

It is an interesting line of argument — it feels like a spiritual cousin to popular (and powerful) “AI art is theft” sentiments.

Sponsored

It is bad enough if SHEIN were to rip off a small artist’s designs once or twice, but if the practice were repeated, such that it formed a part of its “organizational DNA,” the claim looks a lot more colorable. It will still be an uphill battle though — getting RICO to stick on the basis of copyright infringement could be a hard sell for some. In United States Media Corp. v. Edde Entertainment, Inc., the Second Circuit dismissed a RICO claim of copyright violations on the theory that they weren’t equivalent to fraud. Additional factors like the company’s corporate structure may be enough to tip SHEIN’s business into fraud territory, but only time will tell.

Fast Fashion Retailer Shein Accused Of Racketeering And Copyright Infringement In Lawsuit [The Independent]

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

Sponsored

Topics

, , , , , ,