Artist Michael Moebius Is Suing Fast Fashion Retailer Shein in a Landmark Case for Artists Going After Multinational Companies
The amended complaint, 10 pages longer than what Moebius first filed, takes a much stronger stance against the controversial retailer, and comes after reports Shein was seeking to launch an initial public offering in the United States. Shein hasThe court record shows Moebius’ lawyers are framing their arguments on two legal theories that have not been tested together: the delayed discovery rule and the so-called server test.
The amended complaint also names a new defendant, Singapore-based firm Roadget, which his lawyers claim is the intellectual property holding company tied to all Shein’s international entities—meaning Roadget could be liable for the possible damages— a hit to the retailer at a global scale.verified by Artnet News show Shein’s trademarks are registered to Roadget.
Moebius’ lawyers said Roadget owned and operated the websites shein.com and us.shein.com, where the company advertised and sold its fraudulent copies of Moebius’ work. The amended complaint alleges the images on Shein’s product pages are hosted at domains including img.shein.com and img.ltwebstatic.com, which pinged to U.S. servers. The product listing pages themselves appeared on a variety of Shein’s domains globally, including us.shein.com and shein.co.uk.