Redbubble Reaped Millions on Counterfeit Products, New Lawsuit Claims

Online marketplace Redbubble makes millions off selling a “massive amount” of counterfeit merchandise, without taking adequate measures to solve the problem, a new lawsuit claims.

In a proposed nationwide class action lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of California on March 29, lead plaintiff Kamille Faye Vinluan-Jularbal claims she unwittingly bought counterfeit products of Redbubble, and did not get what she paid for when she ordered two items of clothing off the site in December 2020 and January 2021.

In December 2020, Vinluan-Jularbal says she ordered a United Nations sweatshirt from the Redbubble, which turned out to be counterfeit, and then in January 2021, she ordered a “Dadalorian” sweatshirt which she believed was an official sweatshirt from “The Mandalorian” television series, according to the class action.

“The only difference in the designs are the letters themselves, the infringing design replacing “MAN” with “DA.” This itself is a reference to the series because the protagonist in The Mandalorian acts as a father figure to a character affectionately known as “Baby Yoda,” the lawsuit explains.

Vinluan-Jularbal bought the items because she had an “affinity for the United Nations, and The Mandalorian series,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiff would not have knowingly supported counterfeiters and infringers of such intellectual property rights.”

Vinluan-Jularbal alleges Redbubble encouraged counterfeiting and infringement on its website, knowingly retained proceeds off counterfeit products, and unfairly competed with intellectual property owners and licensees.

Redbubble, founded in 2006, allows users to upload designs to its website that are then printed on a wide range of products, including t-shirts, phone cases, stickers, and posters. Once a design has been uploaded, anyone can buy the final product, and the person who uploaded the design gets a small percentage of the proceeds every time something with their uploaded design is purchased, according to the lawsuit.

Once a purchase is made, Redbubble sends the design to a manufacturing partner who prints it on a blank product – known as the “print-on-demand” model. Redbubble is responsible for all aspects of the sales, including packaging and delivery, explains the class action.

The lawsuit states that the model used by Redbubble sees the company “advertising, marketing, creating, displaying, offering for sale, selling, distributing, and profiting from massive quantities of counterfeit and infringing products.”

The complaint says many of the counterfeit items are exact replicas of registered trademarks, and infringement has ranged from well-known brands, including Chanel, McDonald’s, and Starbucks, to those lesser-known.

Redbubble has been sued for trademark and copyright infringement in federal courts on multiple occasions points out the class action lawsuit and has been found liable for infringement in its home country of Australia.

The lawsuit adds it is almost impossible for customers to determine whether they are buying fake or real items, and the plaintiff unwittingly bought counterfeit items from the website.

Unlike its competitors, Redbubble refuses to disable use of well-known trademarks as keywords or proactively search for counterfeit or infringing items on its website, and it only responds to takedown notices or being sued, the lawsuit alleges.

“So far as Redbubble believes, they are free to sell knockoffs from any well-known brand up and until the point they get caught by the owner,” the complaint states, adding 412 users had to be reported three or more times before being banned from the platform and one user was reported 34 times.

Vinluan-Jularbal said although the company employed some content moderators, its policies were “woefully deficient” and given its huge profits it could allocate additional resources to moderation, the lawsuit says. “At minimum, its failure to do so is willful blindness.”

The Redbubble 2019 Annual Report said 76 percent of its product revenue originated from “authentic sellers,” meaning 24 percent of its sales were “inauthentic” or infringing accounting for $46.56 million, the lawsuit says.

“Upon information and belief, the percentage of infringing products sold by Redbubble significantly exceeds 24%, and Redbubble’s yearly sales of infringing products are significantly higher than $46.56 million.”

Although previous lawsuits have resulted in some compensation to a “small minority” of rights holders, Redbubble customers had received no compensation for fake goods and weren’t eligible for refunds, the lawsuit says.

Vinluan-Jularbal is seeking to represent any person or entity in the United States that purchased counterfeit or infringing products from Redbubble, by way of its website. She is suing under the Violation Of California’s Unfair Competition Law and Violation Of California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act. Vinluan-Jularbal is seeking injunctive relief and restitution.

Have you bought something off Redbubble? Do you think the piece you received was counterfeit? Let us know in the comments section!

Vinluan-Jularbal is represented by Keith J. Wesley and Matthew L. Venezia of Browne George Ross O’Brien Annaguey & Ellis LLP.

The Redbubble Counterfeit Class Action Lawsuit is Kamille Faye Vinluan-Jularbal et al., v. Redbubble Inc., Case No. 2:21-cv-00296, in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of California.

Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:

• Clothing & Restaurant Coupon Text Lawsuit Investigation
• W.B. Mason Accused of Price-Gouging on Fake N-95 Masks, Nationwide Class Action Claims
• Express Texts Itself Into a Nationwide TCPA Class Action Lawsuit
• Do You Qualify: Abandoned Cart Text Message Class Action Lawsuit Claim Review