Richemont-own luxury accessories company Cartier has filed a lawsuit against Tiffany & Co. with the New York Supreme Court commercial division. According to Cartier, Tiffany & Co was given high jewelry intelligence by a former Cartier employed recently hired by the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned brand.
According to reporting by WWD, the suit claims, “Plaintiff Cartier has not only uncovered direct evidence of a former employee’s unlawful taking of Cartier’s valuable confidential information and trade secrets, but through determined investigation Cartier has also opened a window into Tiffany’s disturbing culture of misappropriating competitive information.”
The suit also claims that Tiffany hired a junior-level Cartier manager, who was placed in a more senior role, with the intent to obtain competitor intel from said employee. The former Cartier employee was named in an affidavit attached to the case outlining how they were poached by Tiffany. The suit claims the former Cartier employee saved work documents which included both trade secrets as well as compensation structures, to prepare for the new role at Tiffany.
Cartier is demanding the return of its documents and the assurance its business strategies and compensation structures will not be used at Tiffany.
LVMH completed the acquisition of Tiffany in January 2021. Since taking over the New York-based company, LVMH has been pouring marketing money into repositioning the brand through multiple A-list ambassadors globally as well as product placement and influencer seeding.
