Tiffany & Co. was sued in New York state court by luxury goods conglomerate Cartier, alleging the famed boutique persuaded an ex-Cartier employee to share detailed, esoteric information in an attempt to improve its jewelry division.
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According to the complaint, Tiffany has a “disturbing culture of misappropriating competitive information.” It further states that Tiffany lured an “under-qualified” Cartier manager to Tiffany solely for the purpose of obtaining competitive information on some of Cartier’s rarest, unique pieces of jewelry.
Megan Marino, the employee in question, is also named as a defendant in the suit. Cartier alleges that immediately upon hiring her, Tiffany’s president for the Americas met with Marino and specifically asked for the highly confidential information.
“Fully disregarding the new manager’s confidentiality and non-solicitation contractual obligations to Cartier, Tiffany’s president for the Americas asked her to assist Tiffany in soliciting great talent from Cartier,” the company claimed.
Throughout Marino’s “brief tenure” at Tiffany, several executives in the merchandising department repeatedly and knowingly solicited and received confidential information from her, Cartier said.
Cartier claims it sent multiple written notices to the boutique about the “highly concerning circumstances,” but the company merely ignored them. Tiffany eventually fired Marino for failing to disclose her misconduct while taking no action against the senior leaders who pressured her to engage in it, Cartier said.
“Moreover, Tiffany continues to ignore open and obvious use of Cartier confidential information, including Tiffany’s use of Cartier’s confidential information in its internal business presentations,” Cartier said. “This action is necessary to remedy Tiffany’s prior wrongdoing and to cease its current course of illegal conduct.”
Cartier is alleging breach of contract, misappropriation of confidential information and trade secrets, tortious interference with contract and business relations, and unfair competition. It also requested a preliminary injunction, arguing that Cartier will suffer irreparable harm if Tiffany isn’t prevented from using its trade secrets.
“Here, there can be no doubt that plaintiff will be irreparably harmed if defendants are not enjoined from using Cartier’s confidential information to undercut Cartier’s prices, steal Cartier’s customers, replicate Cartier’s processes and otherwise unfairly compete with Cartier,” Cartier said in a memorandum.
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