According to the news, Temu, a cross-border e-commerce platform owned by Pinduoduo, has restarted a lawsuit against its rival Shein in the United States, saying that its anti-competitive behavior against Temu has "intensified," which is the latest round of status battle between the two fastest-growing retailers in the United States.。

"Temu found that Shein's anticompetitive behavior not only persisted, but intensified," the complaint said.。Shein's persistent and increasingly aggressive use of anti-competitive, coercive and threatening behaviour necessitates a lawsuit。"

As a result, the legal battle between the two e-commerce giants has begun again.。The two companies had previously fought each other in U.S. courts, and the two sides had just dropped another lawsuit in October this year.。

Shein 'illegally interfered' with Temu 'had no choice'

The appeal documents show that Boston-based WhaleCo (which operates under the name Temu in the United States) accused Shein of "unlawful interference" in its business, using intellectual property rights violations and "mafia-style intimidation" to coerce Temu suppliers in order to stop Temu's growth in the United States.。

The 100-page indictment also documents examples of Shein's escalating tactics against Temu: illegally detaining merchants, forcibly demanding mobile phones from supplier representatives, stealing Temu merchant accounts and passwords, stealing Temu trade secrets, and forcing merchants to withdraw from the Temu platform.。Not only that, Shein also poached Temu's main marketing, advertising staff。

Temu also emphasized in the complaint that "Shein's actions against Temu have subverted and abused the U.S. legal system and disrupted the market."。"

In response to the matter, a Temu-related person said: "Their actions are so exaggerated that we have no choice but to prosecute them."。According to the filing, more than 63 percent of the copyright claims against Temu between January and October this year came from Shein, for a total of 3..30,000 complaints, 1 of the total number of complaints from all brands in all regions of the world..7 times。

In response, Shein's spokesperson stated: "Temu has not only been copying Shein's own-brand products on a large scale and continues to engage in unfair competition, but has also reversed black and white and shouted to catch thieves in an attempt to retaliate and discredit them with malicious litigation.。The lawsuit is groundless and Shein will actively defend herself.。"

Shein takes the lead Temu comes from behind

The two companies are understood to be uncompromising competitors in the online bargain shopping space。Temu is a low-cost online retailer from China for overseas consumers, and Shein is also highly dependent on local Chinese manufacturers to design and produce low-priced products, which are then sold to the United States, Europe and Asia through international logistics.。

Shein, one of the world's fast fashion e-commerce giants, was founded in China in 2008 and moved its headquarters to Singapore before entering the US market in 2017.。Its valuation has soared to $100 billion by 2022, making it the third most valuable startup in the world.。

Recently, rumors of Shein's initial public offering (IPO) have been rife。Sources said the company, which filed a secret application with U.S. securities regulators in November, had a final valuation of $66 billion and could go public as early as next year.。

However, while Shein was making money, Temu entered the U.S. market in September 2022.。

Although Temu's business model is very different from the fashion-centric Shein, as an international business of Pinduoduo, within a few weeks of its launch, Temu topped the app store and subsequently expanded rapidly in more than 40 countries and regions including Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom.。In the second quarter of this year, Temu had 74 million downloads, ranking ninth globally.。

Since then, Shein's valuation has fallen by more than $30 billion, and Temu has naturally always been seen by Shein as the biggest threat, thus "trying to curb competition."。

In November, Pinduoduo CEO Chen Lei said at the third quarter earnings meeting that he hoped to use the supply chain foundation accumulated over the years to provide consumers in different regions of the world with "direct factory" purchase channels, giving users a more flexible and personalized supply chain, as well as a more cost-effective integrated shopping experience.。

The latest data shows that U.S. consumers spend almost twice as much time on Temu as on apps such as Amazon, with an average user day of 18 minutes in the second quarter of this year and 10 minutes on Amazon.。

Litigation by both sides has become commonplace.

In fact, this isn't the first time they've gone to court.。

Back to the dispute between Temu and Shein, on July 14 this year, Temu had filed a lawsuit in the United States Federal Court in Boston, accusing Shein of violating the United States anti-monopoly law, "abusing market dominance, forcing clothing manufacturers to sign exclusive agreements with them, locking up the supply chain, and preventing them from cooperating with Temu by intimidation and other means."。

Earlier, in December 2022, Shein had sued Temu in the United States for trademark and copyright infringement, including plagiarism of Shein-branded products and images - Shein accused Temu of "impersonating Shein on social media to compete for market" and using Shein's copyrighted images as part of its product list.。

Temu, for its part, refuted the allegations, saying Shein had not lived up to its copyright claims and that some of the allegedly infringing images had not been registered.。Temu also said it never impersonated Shein and was not involved in the creation of the Twitter accounts in question, which were created by its third-party players.。

At the end of July, Shein parent company Roadget Business PTE was granted a temporary injunction (TRO) in a trademark infringement lawsuit against Temu.。In October of this year, the two companies "did not provide any reason" and quietly withdrew their lawsuits against each other until now.。

Competition interlocking violations "difficult to distinguish"

There is no doubt that the competition between the two companies has become increasingly fierce.。

Temu has set a $30 billion GMV (total commodity transactions) target for 2024, more than double this year, and expects to achieve $14 billion GMV for the full year 2023.。Shein, on the other hand, continues to use profit as an important indicator of internal assessment, with full-year profit this year set to reach $2.5 billion, up from 1 in 2019..$3.7 Billion Makes Big Jump。

In May of this year, Shein expanded its platform model and began selling home, beauty and electronics products, benchmarking Temu's products sold in the U.S. market.。

Behind the intensifying business war, in terms of market behavior norms, the two companies are difficult to distinguish between black and white.。

There have been reports that Shein has been facing intense scrutiny from regulators in Washington over its business practices and that the company received unfair preferential treatment on the "micro principle."。The "micro principle" is a U.S. trade clause that eliminates the need for businesses that ship low-cost products to U.S. consumers to pay tariffs.。

And as Temu emerged, it began to face some of the same criticism。A June report by a U.S. House committee said Shein and Temu used trade loopholes to import goods into the United States without paying import duties or conducting human rights reviews of the goods.。