Torquay’s Emily Wright fights for her stolen artwork against Temu seller
A Torquay artist says it was a “kick in the guts” to find her stolen design being sold on an online retailer known for its cheap goods. This is how she took on Temu — and won.
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A Torquay artist has taken on Chinese retail giant Temu after a third party seller stole one of her lino designs and advertised it on the site for less than $6 a piece.
Emily Wright, founder of Ahki Illustration, created the print in 2019 and said it sold well on her Etsy store.
In a fluke Google search she found it was also being sold on Temu — but not by her.
“It was really random, I’m about to start hosting lino workshops and I was researching some of the tools I’d need so I typed ‘perspex plate for lino printing’ and it came up in Google’s suggested products,” Ms Wright said.
“At first I didn’t really understand what I saw but then I realised the site said they’d already sold six of them so I was pretty annoyed and upset.”
The 31-year-old has been building her business for 10 years and said while the work had now been taken off Temu, the experience was a “kick in the guts”.
Ms Wright took to Instagram to find help.
“People sent me helpful links to articles where other artists had their art stolen too,” she said.
“The sad thing is it seems to be happening to a lot of small businesses who are working so hard.
“I tried Temu’s live chat ... a bot, which was frustrating.
“Then I found their claims section for intellectual property and copyright infringement but all that language is overwhelming and it felt so out of my control.
She then discovered “copyright is free and automatic in Australia”.
Ms Wright said she was relieved her artwork had since been taken down from Temu, but her crusade didn’t stop there.
“It feels a bit yucky knowing they’ll probably keep doing this to other artists so I went onto Temu and started taking screenshots and doing an image search to find where the artworks originally came from,” she said.
She then emailed artists to let them know the site was selling their designs, and how they could get it taken down.
“It takes so much effort and you have to be online to be found, to grow and make sales and to have people exploit that is frustrating,” she said.
A Temu spokesman said the business took concerns about intellectual property seriously.
“As soon as we received this report, we looked into it right away and removed the listing in question,” he said.
“We’re also reviewing similar listings to prevent any further issues.”
The spokesman said Temu’s onboarding process required sellers to provide verifiable identity information and sign agreements that included a commitment to respecting intellectual property rights.
“Sellers are held responsible for meeting these terms, and if they don’t, we have steps in place — ranging from removing specific items to suspending or permanently banning sellers in cases of serious or repeated violations,” he said.
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Originally published as Torquay’s Emily Wright fights for her stolen artwork against Temu seller
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