Aussie beauty business fights for survival

After spotting a gap in the market, she began making and selling an eyelash serum, Long Lashes, in 2017, both direct to consumers through her own website, and wholesale, via other beauty websites and salons.

But after noticing a sharp drop in sales recently, she received a call two months ago that has turned her small business dream into a nightmare.

The call was from a wholesale client, whose website had been taken down by its eCommerce hosting platform because it sold CanGro’s Long Lashes product.

Ms Tappenden was then contacted by a number of other stockists, who had suffered the same fate at the hands of giant eCommerce website hosting platform, Canada-based Shopify.

Investigations revealed the root of the problem – Shopify had been issued with a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) take-down notice by ForChics, a US competitor claiming Ms Tappenden’s product was a copy of its own.

Have a similar story? | Contact [email protected]

In order to get their websites reinstated, her wholesalers had to drop the Long Lashes product, a move she told news.com.au has cost her 80 per cent of her wholesale sales, which account for around 70 per cent of CanGro’s total sales.

She said the 56 per cent loss in sales overall amounts to “hundreds of thousands of dollars”.

But Ms Tappenden told news.com.au that the copyright allegation is baseless.

“Contrary to their claims, our Australian made product, Long Lashes Eyelash Enhancer, is not a replica nor an infringement of ForChics’ lash serum.”

She added that her product was released before the ForChics product, and she registered an international trademark for CanGro in 2016 which, she said, “cost a fortune”.

Ms Tappenden said that in order to have her products blocked from sale, all her rival had to do was send a DMCA take-down notice with links to both products to website host Shopify, without providing any evidence as to its claim.

“Anybody can do this to anyone,” she added.

Despite subsequently supplying documented evidence to Shopify that her lash product predates ForChics’ similar product, the take-down notice has remained in place, with the global giant advising her to seek legal advice in an email.

The email she received from Shopify read: “Once we receive a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Takedown Notice, we must follow procedures and pass it along to our Merchant. As we are unable to provide you with legal advice, we suggest seeking independent legal counsel for any further assistance or guidance you may require.”

Ms Tappenden said she has engaged local lawyers, Austrade and the Small Business Ombudsman to look into the matter, but unfortunately they have had no response from either ForChics or Shopify.

Her next step is to hire a US intellectual property lawyer, something she told news.com.au she can’t afford and her mental health “wouldn’t cope with”.

“In this case my trademark has been of no use but I know if it went to court I’d win,” she said.

She said that while she is “confident ForChics are gone, they won’t issue another DMCA notice”, unless sales improve she fears the situation “could close my business”.

“I just want my wholesale clients back. I have millions of dollars worth of stock with expiry dates sitting in two storage units”, she said.

Ms Tappenden said that despite launching one of the first eyelash serums on the market, she never considered taking action against other similar products that have subsequently been launched.

“There’s plenty of business for everyone,” she said.

Have a similar story? | Contact [email protected]