Shein has lost its High Court claim against rival Temu over the alleged copyright infringement of photographs of its clothing, with Judge Kelyn Bacon ruling on Thursday that the online fast-fashion group’s claims had failed.
The case, which went to trial in London in May, centred on product photographs that Shein said had been used on Temu’s platform to advertise copies of Shein’s own-brand clothing. Shein accused Temu of breaching its copyright “on an industrial scale” and of using the images to “piggy-back” on a more established competitor.
Temu, which is owned by PDD Holdings, denied the allegations and argued that Shein was using litigation to stifle competition.
In her written ruling, Judge Bacon rejected Shein’s argument that Temu had authorised infringement by the third-party merchants who uploaded the photographs to its website, noting that Temu “prohibits merchants from uploading infringing content”. Shein did not pursue a separate argument that Temu had itself reproduced the photographs, the judge said, because Temu’s servers are located outside the United Kingdom.
The judge also found that, even if infringement had been established, Temu could have relied on the hosting defence, which shields online platforms acting as intermediaries from liability for content uploaded by third parties where they lack knowledge of the infringement.
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