Brandy Melville — one of the leading brands in the world of fast fashion — has sued one of its rivals, the online platform Temu, for allegedly selling counterfeits and infringing on intellectual property.
The July 21 filing continues a trend of fast-fashion titans clashing in the courts.
What happened?
In the federal lawsuit filed in New Jersey, Brandy Melville’s corporate ownership claimed that Temu knowingly offered items on its website that imitated trademarked and copyright-protected designs, as TFL detailed. It shared cases of Temu allegedly using Brandy Melville’s images to sell knockoffs.
The suit also accused Temu of falsely representing itself as a neutral marketplace for vendors when it instead exerts control over what they sell.
In the legal document, Brandy Melville characterized Temu as an “ultra fast fashion” seller with a focus on supplying products to customers “as quickly and cheaply as possible.” It claimed that “Temu went to extraordinary measures to trade off Brandy Melville’s goodwill with its customers” and that Temu sold lower-priced, lower-quality knockoffs.
Fashion Dive reported that Brandy Melville sought a jury trial to award damages of at least $1 million. This lawsuit echoed a filing from June in which Brandy Melville accused Shein, another fast fashion rival, of similar infringements. In recent years, Shein has also sued Temu, and Temu has sued Shein.
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Why is fast fashion concerning?
While fast fashion companies level accusations and lawsuits at one another, the model of selling fast, cheap, quickly discarded clothing has also arguably led to questionable business practices. Brandy Melville is itself the subject of a critical 2024 Max documentary and settled its own lawsuit in 2022 over alleged failures to pay employees properly.
Overall, the fast fashion industry provides convenience and low prices, but its human and environmental costs are also well-documented.
The UN Environment Programme and other sources have reported that the fashion industry as a whole produces between 2% and 8% of the carbon pollution that overheats the planet and intensifies extreme weather and other hazards.
Even the Encyclopedia Britannica’s explanation of “fast fashion” acknowledges this sector’s heavy contribution to pollution, saying “fast fashion in particular, with its low prices and poor-quality items, encourages consumers to discard an item of clothing even if it has been worn only a few times.” It also notes that “fast fashion tends to exploit the workers responsible for its production.”
Textile waste has been estimated at more than 100 million tons each year, according to Earth.org. Worldwide, a garbage truck’s worth of clothes is burned or dumped in a landfill every second, per the Geneva Environment Network.
What can I do about fast fashion?
Some alternatives make it easier for consumers to save money and create less pollution by avoiding fast fashion.
Shopping secondhand for even part of your wardrobe can save you hundreds each year and can lead to fun, cheap discoveries while not requiring the impact of making new clothes.
You can save money and impact by fixing up clothes that still have style and life in them.
And when brands put in work to be eco-friendly or improve business practices, you can choose to reward their efforts.
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