'My child's photo was stolen to sell goods on Temu'

A designer says it was "gut-wrenching" to see a picture of her young daughter being used to sell ripped-off copies of her work on Temu.

Natalie Ramsell-Lee, from Market Weighton, East Yorkshire, designs and produces greetings cards, prints, and personalised children's clothes.

She said it was "deflating" to see sellers on the Chinese-owned retail platform stealing her designs and using photos she had taken of her child to market copies "at a fraction of the price".

Temu said the listings had been removed, adding: "We do not permit the unauthorised use of intellectual property on our platform."

A spokesperson added: "Listings that violate these standards are promptly removed, and enforcement actions are taken against the responsible sellers."

Ramsell-Lee, 38, said she ran every aspect of her business, I Am Nat, including coming up with the designs, printing, product photography, marketing and shipping.

She said she came across the copies on Temu by chance and had no idea how long they had been up on the platform. She reported the posts to the company on 24 April and they were taken down two days later.

As well as her clothing designs, she said some of her greeting card designs had also been copied and sold on the platform.

"Small businesses shouldn't be penalised for making their work visible. It doesn't give someone the right to steal it," she said.

"It's deflating because it's difficult to make it as a small business in the current climate."

Coming up with new designs felt pointless, "because you know they're going to be taken and used elsewhere", she added.

Dids Macdonald OBE, chair and co-founder of Anti Copying In Design (ACID) said: "The scale of online infringement is vast and widespread, not only in the UK but worldwide.

"We are calling for stronger deterrents, cost and timely access to easier enforcement."

A spokesperson for the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) said: "The IPO continues to engage with the major e-commerce stores – in the UK and overseas – to remove goods identified as infringing or counterfeit, and permanently remove persistent sellers from their platforms.

"We publish guidance to help traders protect their IP rights on all major e-commerce stores, including Temu."

However, Ramsell-Lee said: "The listings I've had taken down, those sellers are still on there. There's no consequences to what's happening.

"There needs to be stricter rules before things can even be listed on sites like Temu."

Temu said Ramsell-Lee's designs had "been incorporated into our intellectual property database to enhance ongoing monitoring and prevention efforts".

The company added: "To protect rights holders, we employ a combination of automated detection and manual review systems, currently scanning over 38 million images and more than nine million keywords."

Ramsell-Lee advised people to think twice before they "buy cheap".

"When products are so cheap, it usually comes at a cost," she said.

"It's small businesses who are paying that price because that's where the ideas come from."

Listen to highlights fromHull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North.

Download the BBC News app from the App Storefor iPhone and iPad orGoogle Play for Android devices