Online fashion house Showpo is suing one of its former graphic designers and fledgling online retailer Black Swallow for reputational damage and loss of sales alleging the woman stole the entire customer database and passed it on to her new employer.
In documents filed with the Federal Court, Showpo claims 24-year-old Melissa Aroutunian exported its 306,000-strong customer database before she left the company in September last year and passed it on to Black Swallow, which it claims then used the list to market itself as an affiliate of Showpo, using similar branding.
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Showpo sues former employee
A former employee of online clothes retailer Showpo is being sued for allegedly copying and taking the customer database to her new employers.
Black Swallow has strongly denied the allegations.
Showpo, which is on track to book $25 million in revenue for 2016 and was founded in 2010 by entrepreneur Jane Lu, is an online retailing business selling fast and affordable fashion. Black Swallow, which launched 15 months ago, is a similar e-commerce business.
According to Showpo, Ms Aroutunian resigned from her job last September and downloaded the entire client contact list before she left the company. The data allegedly included contact information of customers, contacts, buyers, suppliers, associates, competition entrants, web users and subscribers.
Showpo has 270,000 individual customers, and about 306,000 names and details were on the list, but it is understood it did not include credit card or financial information.
MailChimp, which manages the email direct mail (EDM), has provided activity history that allegedly shows at 9.33pm on September 6, Ms Aroutunian's password was used to access the client contact list which was then exported to her home IP address.
In October, Ms Aroutunian started work for Alexander Baro, the managing director of Black Swallow, and the court documents allege that around that time she provided him with Showpo's client contact list.
Showpo claims it discovered the breach when at least 90 customers started receiving unsolicited marketing material from Black Swallow, beginning on October 29.
When contacted by The Australian Financial Review for a response to the allegations, Mr Baro said they were "garbage" and denied Black Swallow was in possession of the customer client list.
"We don't need to put out a statement so write whatever you want," he said. "Use your imagination, I can't wait to see what you come up with."
The court documents claim Ms Aroutunian has profited or might profit from the alleged theft and when pressed on whether Black Swallow offered her a payment for the client list, Mr Baro said: "Nah, we bought her a house."
Ms Aroutunian did not return calls and Showpo did not provide comment, citing the ongoing court case.
It is also alleged Ms Aroutunian breached her contractual obligations and copied Showpo's confidential property. The court documents claim Mr Baro is marketing his company as an affiliation of Showpo using an identical stylised "W" in its logo, breaching the Competition and Consumer Act.
Showpo is seeking orders that Ms Aroutunian, Mr Baro and the employees of Black Swallow must destroy or delete the client contact list and the company must stop using the stylised "W" in its marketing.
The court case will continue in February.