Instacart sues Uber’s new grocery delivery service Cornershop for ‘stealing thousands of its catalog product images, descriptions and pricing data’
- Instacart, a San Francisco-based grocery delivery company, filed the lawsuit against Uber’s new delivery service Cornershop last week
- Instacart has accused Cornershop of stealing their grocery catolog and allegedly passing it off as their own as it launched in the United States
- Uber, however, has claimed that Instacart’s lawsuit is just an attempt to stifle new competition in grocery delivery
- Uber announced last year it was bringing grocery delivery to the US after partnering with Cornershop – a Chilean company
- Cornershop debuted in the US in May in Dallas and Miami
- The lawsuit claims Instacart has spent about $17 million since launching in 2015 to build up and maintain its product catalog
- Instacart’s lawsuit includes side-by-side comparisons of some of the grocery items that it says were allegedly stolen by Cornershop
Instacart is suing Uber’s new grocery delivery service Cornershop for allegedly stealing thousands of catalog product images, descriptions and pricing data.
The San Francisco-based grocery delivery company filed the lawsuit in Texas last week against Uber’s newly acquired rival service.
Instacart has accused Cornershop of stealing their grocery catolog and allegedly passing it off as their own as it launched in the United States.
Meanwhile, Uber has claimed that Instacart’s lawsuit is just an attempt to stifle new competition in grocery delivery.
Uber announced last year it was bringing grocery delivery to the US after partnering with Cornershop – a Chilean company. It debuted in the US in May in Dallas and Miami.
Instacart’s lawsuit includes side-by-side comparisons of some of the grocery items that it says were allegedly stolen by Cornershop.
Instacart is suing Uber’s new grocery delivery service Cornershop for allegedly stealing thousands of catalog product images, descriptions and pricing data. The lawsuit includes side-by-side comparisons (above) of some of the grocery items that it says were allegedly stolen by Cornershop
The lawsuit claims Instacart has spent about $17 million since launching in 2015 to build up and maintain its product catalog.
The company claims Cornershop has stolen thousands of copyrighted and proprietary images without attribution or permission.
Instacart says Cornershop changed the file names of the images to hide where they initially came from, the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit argues that Instacart has invested millions of dollars to create original product images to appeal to customers.
‘But Cornershop has simply copied thousands of these images – ignoring Instacart’s copyrights and… reposted them on Cornershop’s platform to unfairly compete against Instacart,’ the suit says.
‘Instead of competing fairly, Cornershop has illegally accessed and scraped Instacart’s platform, copying and using without authorization thousands of copyrighted and licensed images, along with product descriptions, pricing data, and other information taken from Instacart – all while falsely representing to its customers and the world that these materials are licensed or owned by Cornershop.’
The lawsuit also claims that Cornershop has posted jobs for engineers with ‘advanced scraping’ skills, which Instacart claims indicates it is a strategic effort for the company.
Instacart has accused Cornershop of stealing their grocery catolog and allegedly passing it off as their own as it launched in the United States
Uber announced last year it was bringing grocery delivery to the US after partnering with Cornershop – a Chilean company. It debuted in the US in May in Dallas and Miami
Instacart claims it was forced to file the lawsuit after initially sending Cornershop a cease and desist demand.
An Uber spokesperson said Cornershop will be responding to the lawsuit.
‘Instacart is facing a new challenge in the US from a Chilean upstart, and it’s unfortunate that their first move is litigation instead of competition,’ a statement read.
‘Cornershop will be responding to this complaint but won’t be deterred in bringing grocery delivery to more customers in the US.’
Instacart’s lawsuit comes after the company revealed last month it had raised $225 million in a new funding round, valuing it at $13.7 billion, as the grocery delivery company cashed in on a surge in online shopping amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The new financing round was led by venture capitalist firms DST Global and General Catalyst, while existing investor D1 Capital Partners also participated.
Instacart was valued at $7.87 billion in its last funding round in November 2018, when it raised $871 million. The company now has nearly $1 billion in cash on its balance sheet.
Instacart’s order volumes have surged as much as 500 percent over the last few months as consumers, hesitant to travel to supermarkets amid the pandemic, take to their phones to get groceries, alcohol and prescriptions drugs delivered to their doorsteps.
Instacart’s order volumes have surged as much as 500 percent over the last few months as consumers, hesitant to travel to supermarkets amid the pandemic, take to their phones to get groceries. Pictured is Instacart worker Saori Okawa in California on July 1