An independent illustrator accused Zara of “copying” her work without permission.
Tuesday Bassen, from LA, US, claimed the high street store has replicated her range of pins and patches on its clothing.
The 27-year-old insists Zara has been copying her artwork for the past year and put forward a copyright claim.
Bassen has worked with brands like Urban Outfitters, Adidas and Nike, and sells her products on fashion sites like Nasty Gal, as well as her own website.
She said that, unlike other companies, Zara did not contact her to request to use her designs and that she only found out after commenters started alerting her on social media.
To prove the similarity between the alleged copies, Bassen took to Instagram to share side-by-side pictures of the designs, along with what she says is the response to the copyright claim her lawyer received from Zara.
The statement, which Bassen claims to have received from Zara read: “it is very hard to see how a significant part of the population anywhere in the world would associate the signs with Tuesday Bassen”, noting it’s 98 million monthly website visits.
Bassen, who has 92 thousand Instagram followers, told the Daily Mail she was “disheartened” because the brand “essentially replied with ‘it doesn’t matter, because we’re gigantic and you’re little, so next to no one knows we even copied this’”.
In her own statement on Instagram, Bassen revealed she plans to press charges, but that the legal costs are adding up.
The original copyright claim letter her lawyer sent cost Bassen $2,000 (around £1,500).
Since Bassen’s post gained huge attention on social media, Zara have now taken the claims seriously and removed the relevant items from sale.
The Huffington Post UK reached out to Zara for comment and a spokesperson for the brand told us: “Inditex [the company that own Zara] respects any third party’s creativity and takes all claims concerning third party intellectual property rights very seriously.
“On receiving these allegations, the relevant items were immediately suspended from sale and an investigation opened.
“In parallel, Inditex’s legal team also contacted Tuesday Bassen’s lawyers to clarify and resolve the situation.”
