SHEIN Removes All Selena Quintanilla Merch on Website — Here’s Why
Credit: Netflix
The family of Selena Quintanilla is taking on SHEIN. After various unauthorized clothes bearing the late singer’s image allegedly appeared on the e-commerce site, her sister is now fighting back in court.
SHEIN is one of the most popular sites online for fast fashion. The e-commerce page has featured clothes and merch with Selena’s image and likeness. Suzette Quintanilla, who runs Q Productions and manages her sister’s estate, reportedly sent a cease and desist letter to SHEIN last August. According to Quintanilla’s legal defense, SHEIN ignored the letter and continued to pump out Selena clothing.
“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,” Quintanilla’s attorneys Thomas K. Richards and Justin R. Trauben stated in a lawsuit against SHEIN.
After the cease and desist letter failed to get a response, Quintanilla started taking legal action against SHEIN on Wednesday (March 11). She filed the lawsuit with the U.S. District Court in California. Quintanilla alleges that SHEIN is selling Selena clothes and merch without permission from Q Productions, which owns the rights to her likeness. The counts against SHEIN in the lawsuit include trademark infringement, unfair competition, and publicity rights violations.
On March 13th at 6:24 AM PT a spokesperson for SHEIN told TMZ “When we were made aware that the products in question were being sold on SHEIN Marketplace by third-party sellers, we immediately removed the listings from our platform and launched an investigation.” When we searched the SHEIN website, we got a “No results found for “selena.”
After Selena’s passing in 1995, her father Abraham Quintanilla managed her estate for decades. Last December, he died at age 86 in his sleep, according to his family.