‘Brutal’: thousands of T-shirt designs stolen and listed on Temu, Sydney label claims
News Source
•Fri, 18 Sep 2026 07:35:47 GMT
📰 What Happened
A Sydney T-shirt label says thousands of its designs were copied and sold on the shopping site Temu. Warwick Levy runs Lonely Kids Club and has made graphic T-shirts with local artists for 15 years. He says finding identical shirts on Temu was 'brutal'.
Between 2025 and early this year, Levy found thousands of rip-offs of his work. He says AI tools may have been used to scrape his whole website and copy the designs. He wants Temu to take more responsibility for sellers on its site.
Levy says it is gut-wrenching to see his work making money for strangers who stole it. He wants Temu to do more to stop copyright theft and to improve how it handles complaints.
🔍 The Backstory
Small designers have often accused big marketplaces of selling copies of their work. AI scraping tools have made it easier to copy images on a huge scale. Several designers say their whole online shops were copied.
Temu is known for very low prices and has grown fast around the world. Governments and brands have raised concerns about counterfeits and copyright problems on the platform.
🎯 Why It Matters
Small businesses live on their designs. If copies flood the market, artists and shop owners can lose the money they need to keep working.
A Sydney T-shirt label says thousands of its designs were copied and sold on the shopping site Temu. Warwick Levy runs Lonely Kids Club and has made graphic T-shirts with local artists for 15 years. He says finding identical shirts on Temu was 'brutal'.
Between 2025 and early this year, Levy found thousands of rip-offs of his work. He says AI tools may have been used to scrape his whole website and copy the designs. He wants Temu to take more responsibility for sellers on its site.
Levy says it is gut-wrenching to see his work making money for strangers who stole it. He wants Temu to do more to stop copyright theft and to improve how it handles complaints.
Small designers have often accused big marketplaces of selling copies of their work. AI scraping tools have made it easier to copy images on a huge scale. Several designers say their whole online shops were copied.
Temu is known for very low prices and has grown fast around the world. Governments and brands have raised concerns about counterfeits and copyright problems on the platform.
Small businesses live on their designs. If copies flood the market, artists and shop owners can lose the money they need to keep working.