US designers sue Shein over copying their creative work

San Francisco: Three independent fashion designers from the US have sued Chinese fast-fashion company Shein for allegedly stealing their creative work.

The designers, Krista Perry, Larissa Martinez, and Jay Baron claimed in the lawsuit that Shein had produced, distributed, and sold the exact copies of their work.

They accused Shein of allegedly stealing independent artists’ works “over and over again, as part of a long and continuous pattern of racketeering”, using artificial intelligence and it is alleged that its practices violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) of 1970.

“For all the scrutiny given to TikTok, it is surprising that Congress has not considered more dramatic action against the Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein,” said the three designers.

The fastest-growing online retailer brand, which sells more clothing than any other in the world, recently raised capital at a staggering value of $66 billion.

“Like TikTok, Shein’s business model depends on collecting a shocking amount of data from its customers -- which it then reverse-engineers into fashion trends,” said the lawsuit.

“Shein is actually a greater societal threat than TikTok because it contributes mightily to serious problems beyond data security and privacy, such as environmental damage, sweatshop (or worse) labour conditions, tax avoidance, child safety, as well as the subject of this lawsuit, large-scale and systematic intellectual property theft from U.S. designers large and small,” read the lawsuit.

In a response, Shein told TechCrunch that it takes such claims seriously and will “vigorously defend” itself.

With inputs from IANS