Lululemon filed a lawsuit against Costco that claims the wholesale club operator sells lower-priced “dupes” of its athleisure clothing, the Associated Press reports.
In the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Lululemon Athletica accuses Costco of “unlawfully” trading on its reputation, goodwill and sweat equity by selling unauthorized and unlicensed apparel. It says the apparel uses knockoff, infringing versions of its patents.
Allegations by Lululemon say that Costco is known to use manufacturers of popular branded products for its private label Kirkland brand, but the company and manufacturers do not disclose the connection between them to consumers for many Kirkland-branded products.
Lululemon claims that because of this, some shoppers believe Kirkland-branded products are made by the authentic supplier of the “original” products, and it alleges that Costco does not try to dispel the ambiguity.
Lululeon is seeking a jury trial and unspecified monetary damages and wants Costco to stop selling products it considers duplicates.
