Legal Action by Vinted.com

Sharetribe Go Community Edition
1

I think Sharetribe is very nice code. I learned your system and worked very hard to create a website to sell used and new clothing and other items.

I do not advertise or spam. It was just a site for my wife to sell used clothes that had an ability for others to register and do the same.

This year I notice significant increase in traffic and user registration. People started to register on my site and interact. Website started to grow on it’s own.

It is called : https://www.tavodrabuziai.lt

But today I received phone call from an attorney telling me to take down my site and I was accused of copying website from Vinted.com

I never used Vited and was never interested in the way they do business. I never copied anything from them. I think it is legal for me to use your code because it is open source and no one has the right to terminate my website?

Vinted has huge assets and finances and here I am married guy with 3 children… facing a law suit. It is the biggest bull shit that I ever stepped on.

I do not even code… I am self educated guy and web design is my passion and hobby.

Any advice?

2

(First of all i’m not an attorney and this is not legal advise.)

These type of attorneys are very aggressive. They are paid to intimidate competitors.

I had a similar experience registering a brand.

I don’t know if they already filled a lawsuit or they are just “going fishing”. If they were serious you’ll receive the legal requirement in your mailbox. Maybe they don’t have a real case behind this but they can go further.

At some point in the process you’ll have to argue your right to build a marketplace and how yours is different from vinted.

If you receive a legal requirement is time to find legal advice.

In any case you should have your legal stuff in order, terms of service, and so on.

Take this event as part of doing business. In this job is normal to deal with all kinds of BS that aren’t business. Don’t let it affect you. Really.

Good luck man.

1 Like
3

Damn it, this is indeed very annoying, stay strong!

Thinking of a worst-case scenario, be careful about what you share here and the way you express things: this could come to bite you as this thread is online and public. Nothing bad yet, just a first thought!

Yes, you are allowed to use the Community Edition of Sharetribe Go, as long as you use it within the license terms. We don’t use any code coming from Vinted and have no relationship with them. I don’t think Sharetribe and the technical solution you’ve picked can be involved in any way. But if this is what their claim is about (the Sharetribe Go Community Edition code), they should contact Sharetribe, not you.

I think you should first double-check that this is legit, and not a scam. Is that attorney a real one and are they really working for Vinted? I think you should contact Vinted directly to confirm that they are aware of this.

Then, I would look in detail into what they claim has been copied. Are you using some of the same content (maybe you’ve copied a few sentences for your About page, or some copy texts like some rather unique buttons?), or use very similar colors (your main color, #59a5b3, is indeed quite close to Vinted’s, #09b1ba), or have a domain name that is a copy, or have a similar logo (they look close). Or maybe in the promotion you’ve made you wrote things like “Vinted but cheaper” or whatever. Just a guess.

If you can prove you picked your color and logo before their color and logo was up, it would be obvious that if anything, they copied you :smiley: Otherwise, you’ll have to defend that you didn’t know and ended up with a style that is just rather similar, or you’ll end up in discussions like “You copied the color”, “Your website looks similar to ours”, etc. I’m not sure what the legal basis for that, I don’t have any legal training so really can’t say.

One more thing to check: on your website, do you have images that are copied from their website? That could be something they are enquiring about.

Finally, it’s time to make sure all your terms and policies are up-to-date and notify your users if you’ve had holes in there.

There really isn’t much we, at Sharetribe, can do. But hopefully, other people in this community will share their tips, experiences, and contact! And of course, discussing politely with them (through email, to have some written proofs, versus telephone) can already go a long way.

If you confirm that this is a legit request they’ve sent you, it would be a good idea to seek professional advice to learn how serious their claim of “your website looks so much like ours that visitors can be confused and tricked into believing that you belong to the Vinted network” (I’m guessing/interpreting their claim) is.

Keep us posted!

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4

It was little scary experience, knowing how corrupt legal system is in Lithuania.

I am very ambitious guy and was ready to face them, that is when tone of voice changed and attorney agreed in writing to give up if I could only change my logo color.

It wasn’t big deal to me, so I did changed my logo color and will place my wife on cover soon :slight_smile:

Who knows maybe COVID-19 is messing with peoples minds, because I never expected to get a call from billion dollar company.

Who knows maybe next call I get will be from Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk.

In any way I am glad this is over. Thank you for responding so quick.

The funniest part of it all was demand to transfer my domain and website to Vinted. I guess was unsuccessful shake down attempt.

5

Sorry to read that Nerijus.

I think Thomas’ answer is quite thorough.

Not a legal advice but this very much sounds like unfounded threats here. Make sure to take the lawyers name and contact info.

It’s either a scam attempt or bad anti-competition attempt from Vinted here. I wouldn’t stop my business and would keep going. What are they going to do? Go after eBay and all the second hand marketplaces out there? When I look at your site and theirs, there is no way to be confused between the 2.

They can’t prevent anyone from launching a competitive marketplace.

Don’t give up. Best of luck

1 Like
6

They said clothes look alike :slight_smile:

I got one more email asking me to remove notice that I am not associated with Vinted in any way, never was and never will.

We live in wild west here in Lithuania when it come to law and judges. One got on YouTube for drinking at work:

https://youtu.be/P52UaojsJ7c

I am quite until someone draws the first blood. Just like Rambo :smile:

I don’t think they want to embarrass themselves worldwide. I think this was done without notifying Vinted CEO. I will contact him to let him know. Hope this helps.

I run like 50 websites as a hobby. Never ever was thinking to compete with Vinted. I guess I am now.

7

You should public shame them.