Shein and Temu Clash in London Over Copying and Competition

Shein and Temu dragged their ultra-fast-fashion feud into London’s High Court, and the fight was bigger than stolen images. It was about who gets to move first, who controls the supply chain, and how the cheapest clothes online get to your cart before the trend cools.

The trial opened in London on May 11, 2026 with Shein accusing Temu of copyright infringement on an industrial scale. Shein’s claim centers on allegations that Temu used thousands of Shein product photos, with one account putting the number at about 2,300 images, to sell similar or identical garments. In a business built on speed, those photos are not decoration. They are the storefront, the proof, the bait.

Temu pushed back hard. It said the lawsuit was really designed to stifle competition, not protect creative rights, and argued that the merchants using its platform had authorization to use the images. That defense matters because ultra-fast fashion depends on a tangled network of sellers, suppliers, and platforms, where ownership of a picture can be just as valuable as ownership of a seam. If the same dress can be photographed, listed, copied, and relisted in a flash, the legal fight becomes a fight over the entire machinery of trend-making.

Temu also counter-claimed for damages after it said it had to remove thousands of product listings when Shein won an injunction. On top of that, Temu alleges Shein broke competition law by tying fast-fashion suppliers to exclusive agreements. That part of the dispute is due to go to trial next year, which means the London case is only the opening round in a much wider war over how the cheapest fashion on earth stays cheap, and who gets shut out along the way.

The rivalry has already spilled across the United States, where parallel litigation has included accusations of trade-secret theft, counterfeiting, and coercive supplier practices. That is the ugly, unglamorous engine behind the app-era fashion race: not mood boards, but pressure on factories, control over images, and the scramble to flood shoppers with near-identical looks before anyone else does. In London, Shein and Temu made that system impossible to ignore.