On August 13, 2026, the High Court of Justice in London, UK, issued a ruling in the copyright infringement case of Shein v. Temu, dismissing Shein’s allegations that Temu had infringed its copyrights on an “industrial scale” and upholding some of Temu’s counterclaims.

In the ruling, Judge Kelyn Bacon found that, as a third-party e-commerce platform, Temu’s terms of service explicitly prohibit merchants from uploading infringing content, and that the platform was “unaware” of and “could not have known” about specific acts of infringement; therefore, the “hosting defense” exemption applies. At the same time, the judge noted that Shein had withdrawn its allegation that “Temu copied its images” during the trial, as Temu’s servers are located in Ireland and the relevant copying occurred outside the United Kingdom.

Regarding the counterclaim, the court upheld Temu’s position, ruling that Shein’s prior application for an injunction based on images for which it did not hold copyright had forced Temu to remove a large number of product listings, and that Temu is entitled to compensation for this. The court has scheduled a separate hearing for 2027 to determine the amount of damages.

It is worth noting that the mutual lawsuits between Shein and Temu in the United States have now been consolidated. Previously, some of Temu’s antitrust and trade secret claims were dismissed due to jurisdictional issues, but its claims regarding Shein’s abuse of takedown notices and other grounds were allowed to proceed.

Case Background:

In July 2023, Temu filed a lawsuit against Shein in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, alleging violations of U.S. antitrust laws;

In August 2023, Shein filed a lawsuit against Temu in the High Court of Justice in the United Kingdom, alleging widespread copyright infringement by Temu and its sellers;

In September 2023 and February 2024, the High Court of Justice in the UK issued two interim injunctions requiring Temu to remove listings of products suspected of infringement;

From October to November 2023, the parties reached a brief settlement in the U.S., and both sides dismissed their lawsuits;

In December 2023, Temu filed another lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that Shein’s anti-competitive conduct had intensified;

In February 2024, the UK High Court issued a ruling granting all of Temu’s motions to dismiss Shein’s claims based on the use of merchants’ images, and upheld Temu’s right to seek damages;

In August 2024, Shein filed a lawsuit against Temu in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging trademark infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets;

In February 2025, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., refused to block Shein from issuing a large number of copyright takedown notices to Temu;

In October 2025, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., partially dismissed Temu’s lawsuit against Shein;

In April 2026, a federal judge in the District of Columbia consolidated the two parallel lawsuits between Shein and Temu for joint consideration;

In July 2026, Temu filed a complaint with the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), alleging that Shein had abused its dominant market position;

On August 13, 2026, the UK High Court issued a ruling in the Shein v. Temu copyright infringement case.