Swedish court says Shein breached copyright of rival Nelly

A Swedish court said on Friday it had found that online fast-fashion retailer Shein had infringed the copyright of smaller rival Nelly by using the Swedish company's photographs.

The Patent and Market Court said Shein's Ireland-based subsidiary Infinite Styles Ecommerce had without permission made copies of pictures owned by Nelly, and made them available to the public on Shein's Swedish website.

"Infinite Styles Ecommerce has thus been guilty of infringing Nelly's exclusive rights to the photographs," the court said in the ruling.

Nelly, which owns e-commerce platform Nelly.com and also has its own apparel brand, filed the lawsuit for copyright infringement in September 2024.

It claimed Shein, which was founded in China and is headquartered in Singapore, had used photos from its website for marketing purposes without its permission.

REUTERS