The best friend of fitness guru Ashy Bines is taking alleged detractors of her clothing company, Gretty Rose the Label, to court for $630,000 after comments were posted online slamming her and the business.
Gretchen Vonlanthen and her company EGL Group Pty Ltd have lodged action in the Federal Court of Australia, against five women that were running two Facebook groups and two Instagram accounts.
The claim states that the comments have left Ms Volanthen uncertain over the future success of her business and suffering from physical ailments such as headaches, nausea, neck and muscle pain, insomnia and decreased appetite.
Gretchen Vonlanthen (pictured) and her company EGL Group Pty Ltd have lodged action in the Federal Court of Australia
The best friends have sizable social media followings each and often post pictures together
The two Facebook groups, which have now been removed, included Ashy Bines & Co Rants and Ashy Bines & Co Business Exposed, which had over 10,000 followers each,The Gold Coast Bulletin reported.
The Instagram accounts included shitashybinessays3 and healthymind.beautifulsoul.
The negative comments began after the clothing label paid social media influences to promote the company’s Roxy Boyfriend jacket, Ms Vonlanthen said in an affidavit.
The campaign, which saw the jacket promoted by huge social media stars such as Kylie Jenner’s best friend Anastasia Kornikolau and model Sophia Jamora, who have over four million followers combined, cost the company $50,000.
The company expected the campaign to bring in $1.5million in sales.
The claim states that the negative comments started being posted online after Anastasia Kornikolau posted a photo of herself wearing the jacket.
‘Wow to be BFF with Kylie Jenner and for her to wear GRTL would be like putting Salvation Army clothes on the poor girl! What a downgrade,’ one person wrote on Ashy Bines & Co Rants.
Ms Bines (pictured) owns a small part of the company and also helps promote the label to her massive online following
The negative comments began after the clothing label (pictured) paid social media influences to promote the company’s Roxy Boyfriend jacket, Ms Vonlanthen said in an affidavit
‘They just buy them cheap from China and sell them from their boutique,’ another person wrote on the page.
The claim states that Between February 23 and mid-March this year 111 comments were made which falsely implied Ms Vonlanthen was dumb, greedy, a liar and benefited from Ashy Bines stealing from other people, amongst other things.
The company was also victim of comments falsely claiming they were ripping people off and selling pour quality clothing sourced from China, the claim states.
As a result of the comments the companies sales dropped by $26,000 a week, the claim states.
As a result of the comments the companies sales dropped by $26,000 a week, the claim states
The federal court documents name Natalie Read as the administrator of the pages and Amanda Jayne Karow and Jenna McNamara as moderators.
The claim states that the three women encouraged the false comments on the pages and refused to delete them.
It is currently unclear who was running the shitashybinessays3 Instagram account but according to the Gold Coast Bulletin Ms Vonlanthen has made an application to the social media company to find out the name of the page’s operator.
The claim states that the three women encouraged the false comments on the pages and refused to delete them
Apparently none of the women involved knew Ms Vonlanthen, Ms Bines or anyone involved in Gretty Rose the Label.
Ms Bines owns a small part of the company and also helps promote the label to her massive online following.
The court has ordered the pages to stop publishing any more material while the case is being heard.
A mediation day is expected to be held in the next two months.