Shein accused Temu of using thousands of its product photographs to sell copied versions of Shein-branded clothing on Temu’s platform. 

The company told the court that Temu tried to benefit from Shein’s market position by reproducing images created by Shein employees.

“This was an attempt to steal a march on an existing participant in the market, and Temu has sought to obtain, we say, an unfair advantage,” Shein’s lawyer Benet Brandreth said in court.

The trial is expected to run for two weeks and is part of a case between both companies across several countries, including the United States.

During proceedings, Shein’s legal team said Temu had withdrawn part of its defence covering almost 2,300 disputed photographs. Brandreth compared the decision to “the defendant waiting to see if the witnesses will turn up, only to plead guilty”.

Temu denied the allegations and argued that Shein’s lawsuit was not simply about protecting copyright. Its lawyers said the case was aimed at slowing down a rival that has grown rapidly in global online retail.

Temu, owned by PDD Holdings, has also filed a counterclaim against Shein. The company is seeking damages after Shein secured a court injunction that forced thousands of Temu product listings offline.

At the centre of the counter-claim is Temu’s accusation that Shein tied suppliers into exclusive agreements, making it harder for competitors to access manufacturers. That competition law dispute is expected to go to trial next year.

The court case is happening at the same time that both companies are facing pressure from regulators in Europe and the United States. Authorities have increased investigation over supplier treatment, product safety, labour standards and the flood of low-cost parcels entering Western markets.

Temu is currently under investigation in the European Union over possible breaches of product safety regulations. Shein, meanwhile, is still being questioned about labour practices within its supply chain as it works towards a possible London stock market listing.

The companies have built huge international businesses by selling ultra-cheap fashion, accessories and household goods directly to shoppers online. Their rapid growth relied heavily on customs exemptions for low-value imports, which helped keep prices low.

That advantage has started to get weaker. The United States removed its de minimis customs exemption for low-value e-commerce parcels in 2025, increasing costs for retailers shipping directly from China. 

The European Union is also preparing to end similar exemptions in July 2026, a move that could affect the expansion plans of both companies.

The issue has already spread beyond Britain. Shein sued Temu in the United States last year over alleged copyright infringement, while Temu later filed its own case accusing Shein of disrupting its marketplace through what it described as “unwarranted notices”.

Although the London case focuses on copyrighted photographs and copied designs, the result could stretch further. 

The comprehensive results of the Online Retail in South Africa 2023 study, released today by World Wide Worx with Mastercard, shows that online shopping shot up from 27% of adult South Africans in 2020 to 38% in 2022.

The study included analysis of the annual Target Group Index (TGI) survey conducted by Ask Afrika, which interviews 16,000 South Africans every six months to gather data on their consumption (products, brands and the media), purchasing behaviour, attitudes, motivations and beliefs. This survey provides the most detailed demographic breakdown of online shopping available in the country.

The growth in the proportion of the population’s shopping behaviours indicates a 40% increase in the total number of people shopping.

The initial findings from the study, released at the end of 2022, coincidentally showed close to 40% annual growth in total online retail spend over the past two years.

“The most revealing aspects of the new data lie in demographic differences between South Africans,” says World Wide Worx CEO Arthur Goldstuck, principal analyst on the research project. “The gender breakdown in particular shows that the traditional gender divide in online shopping, which was dominated by males in the early years still persists, with 41% of men and 36% of women shopping online.”

According to the report, a contributing factor to men dominating the online shopping space is due to them purchasing electronic goods more frequently, which traditionally is a male shopping domain. However, the fact that the biggest growth areas in online shopping in recent years have been in groceries and apparel categories, traditionally dominated by women shoppers, suggests there are other factors at work.

“These may well include elements like male control of household budgets and men being more likely to have a credit card in a household,” says Goldstuck. “It shows that outmoded societal norms die hard.”

The age breakdown of online shoppers in South Africa has seen a significant shift from 2020 figures. During the pandemic, online shopping had “normalised” across age groups, and at the time, an average of 27% to 30% penetration was seen in all age groups up to the age of 64. Only in the 65+ age group did we see a significant drop off (down to 19%).

In 2022, two significant shifts occurred. The first was that the pattern of shopping by age returned to a previously observed pattern, namely that online shopping peaked in the 25-34 age bracket, and then steadily dropped off with each successive age group. The second major shift observed during the past year, was in the significant drop in penetration of online shopping among the 65+ age group. This is the only age group that sees lower penetration than during the height of the pandemic.

“One conclusion that we can draw from the research is that online shopping is strongly correlated with age, but with the youngest age group constrained by lack of earning ability,” says Gabriel Swanepoel, country manager of Mastercard Southern Africa. “A second conclusion is that the oldest age group has a strong reticence towards online shopping, which is backed up by another finding that this bracket is the most likely to still prefer in-store shopping experiences.

“Now, more than ever, it is crucial for retailers to understand their consumers. Understand who they are, where they are, and how our country’s economics affect them. This will assist in understanding how and where to reach the targeted consumers, therefore creating a seamless consumer experience from online to in-store.”

While most age groups show a relatively high level of agreement with the statement that in-store shopping is preferable to online (24% to 30%), this figure increases dramatically to 41% in the over-64 category. No other demographic measure shows such a strong divergence in one segment regarding preference towards in-store experiences.

The metrics that showed the highest positive correlation with online shopping were:

• Education, rising from 20% for those with less than a matric qualification to 54% of those with tertiary education.
• Income, rising steadily from 22% for those earning less than R2,500 a month to 62% for those earning more than R50,000.

Says Goldstuck: “The results are in effect a blueprint for online retailers, showing on the one hand where they will reach their most lucrative customers, and on the other the segments they must target to grow online retail further in South Africa.”