Selena Quintanilla‘s sister, Suzette Quintanilla, is suing Chinese e-commerce company Shein over unlicensed merchandise bearing Selena’s name and likeness.
In the lawsuit, filed on Wednesday (March 11) in U.S. District Court in California, Quintanilla accuses Shein — a Nanjing, China-based global e-commerce giant known for selling low-cost clothing and accessories — of manufacturing and selling “countless t-shirts and other merchandise” with Selena’s name, likeness and identity without permission or compensation.
According to the lawsuit, Quintanilla’s company, Q Productions, sent Shein a cease and desist in August, outlining its rights as the owner of the Selena trademarks. Despite that, Quintanilla alleges the company did not halt the sale of the Selena merchandise.
“To date, Defendants continue to willfully and unlawfully exploit Plaintiffs’ Selena Marks and rights of publicity in commerce against the express demands by Plaintiffs to cease and desist such use,” wrote Quintanilla’s attorneys, Thomas K. Richards and Justin R. Trauben, in the suit.
Quintanilla is suing Shein on multiple counts, including trademark infringement, unfair competition and publicity rights violations. She’s seeking damages and a court injunction that will force Shein to stop the production and sale of merchandise bearing the Selena trademarks.
Shein did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s request for comment on the lawsuit.
Wednesday’s lawsuit is just the latest instance of an e-commerce giant being sued for selling knockoff merchandise in recent months. Last September, Grammy award-winning duo Twenty One Pilots sued Temu, another Chinese e-commerce giant and Shein competitor, over the company’s alleged sale of “blatant copies” of the band’s official merch. The month prior, the estate of late rapper MF Doom sued Temu for the same reason, calling the company “unethical.”
In December, the MF Doom lawsuit was thrown out by a judge who argued it was legally deficient because Temu wasn’t the manufacturer of the merch but rather a pass-through online marketplace for independent sellers. However, a federal judge allowed the estate to reinstate the lawsuit last month after it was revised.
