Shein lost a UK copyright lawsuit against rival Temu on Thursday, 13 August, after London’s High Court ruled that the online marketplace was not liable for photographs allegedly uploaded by third-party merchants, in a judgment with implications for platform responsibility for user content.

Shein had accused Temu of copyright infringement on an “industrial scale”, alleging that merchants on the platform used thousands of photographs of Shein clothing to market products. The case concerned 2,559 product pages on Temu’s UK platform, containing more than 2,200 photographs taken by Shein staff alongside images supplied by vendors and agencies.

In her written judgment, Mrs Justice Kelyn Bacon rejected Shein’s argument that Temu had authorised copyright infringement by its merchants. She said Temu “did not know or have reason to believe” that the photographs infringed Shein’s copyright and found that the marketplace prohibited merchants from uploading infringing material.

The court further found that Temu could have relied on the UK’s hosting defence even if copyright infringement had been established, because it operated as an intermediary and lacked the necessary knowledge of the alleged infringements. Shein had originally argued that Temu directly reproduced its photographs but did not pursue that claim at trial because Temu’s servers were outside the UK.

Shein disputed the outcome, saying through a spokesperson that there was no dispute over its ownership of the thousands of photographs at the centre of the case. “Yet despite copying on an industrial scale, it has avoided liability in the UK simply because the servers supporting its UK website happen to sit in Ireland,” the spokesperson said.

The judgment further upheld a counterclaim brought by Temu after Shein obtained notices requiring the removal of listings involving photographs for which the retailer did not own the copyright. The court will determine the amount of damages at a later trial.

The dispute is part of a wider legal battle between the China-founded retailers, which have expanded rapidly internationally with low-cost products. Temu’s separate competition law claim against Shein, concerning alleged supplier exclusivity arrangements, is due to go to trial in 2027.

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