Cartier lawsuit accuses Tiffany of stealing luxury jewelry trade secrets
- January 2, 2025
- Posted by: Web workers
- Category: Finance
(Reuters) — Cartier sued Tiffany & Co. on Monday, accusing its luxury rival of stealing trade secrets concerning its high-end jewelry through an employee it lured away in December, in a sign competition in the fast-growing jewelry category is heating up.
According to a complaint filed in a New York state court in Manhattan, Tiffany hired a junior manager away to learn more about Cartier’s “High Jewelry” collection, where pieces typically cost $50,000 to $10 million.
Cartier, a unit of Switzerland’s Richemont SA, called Tiffany’s hiring of Megan Marino a desperate bid to revive its own high jewelry unit after it was left in “disarray” following several departures, reflecting Tiffany’s “disturbing culture of misappropriating competitive information.”
According to court papers, Tiffany appeared to pin ultimate blame on Ms. Marino by firing her after just five weeks.
In an affidavit accompanying the complaint, Ms. Marino said Tiffany was “more interested in hiring me as a source of information than as a High Jewelry manager.”
Cartier also accused Tiffany, owned by luxury goods group LVMH, of letting a recently hired former Cartier executive work on a high jewelry project called the “Blue Book” despite her six-month noncompete agreement.
Contacted by Reuters, Tiffany said in a statement: “We deny the baseless allegations and will vigorously defend ourselves.”
The lawsuit seeks an injunction requiring that Tiffany return and not use stolen trade secrets, plus unspecified damages.
Cartier said in a statement: “Cartier fully respects the rights of competitors to pursue their commercial objectives. In this case, however, Tiffany’s commercial ambition crossed the line between the ordinary course of business and unfair competition.”
The case is Cartier v Tiffany and Co., New York State Supreme Court, New York County.
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