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Hello all. I'm working on a section about impactful lawsuits (by and against the company), but MoS isn't exhaustive about what to include here.
There are two main lawsuits I'm looking at here: Dwyer v. Allbirds, Inc. (a lost lawsuit accusing the company of misleading consumers with sustainability claims) [1] [2], Shnayder v. Allbirds, Inc. (a shareholder lawsuit accusing the company of focusing on incorrect, non-core products) [3], and Allbirds, Inc. v. Steve Madden, Ltd. (an infringement case---I am not a lawyer so I have no idea how to word it---that Allbirds ends up dismissing with prejudice) [4] [5].
I have previously had mentions of lawsuits removed, so I thought it would be beneficial to bring out a discussion first. I plan to draft an addition by the end of the week, but if nobody has any comments on it, I will just add them by next Wednesday. Ornov Ganguly (talk) 17:55, 19 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I am back with the draft. Since there's not much about the Steve Madden lawsuit, I believe we can just have it be a single sentence affixed to the Amazon lawsuit threat paragraph. Of course, these paragraphs are basically just bullet lists with no narrative. It also segues into the sustainability section quite well (this source is questionably just unmarked advertising, but is a good start since I don't know material science [1]). To see it with citations and paragraph divisions, look at my Sandbox.
Allbirds was the subject of a 2017 lawsuit, Dwyer v. Allbirds, Inc., accusing the company of misleading consumers about its sustainability practices. Namely, the plaintiff accused the company of not mentioning the carbon impact of its wool sourcing, which through Higg Material Sustainability Index only measures the impact of individual products rather than the supply chain. The judge dismissed the case in 2022 on the grounds that the company adheres to the FTC's Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims, and that depictions of happy sheep in advertising were puffery.
The company was sued by its shareholders in May 2023 amidst a decline in sales for moving from focusing on footwear to other products, which was revealed to have lower core consumer interest. The plaintiffs alleged that this was misleading, leading investors to buy shares at artificially inflated prices, and was therefore securities fraud. The case reached stipulation on 28 May 2024.
In December 2017, Allbirds sued Steve Madden, alleging that the company's Traveler shoes look nearly identical to its Wool Runners. Similarly, in November 2019, Zwillinger accused Amazon's 206 Collective of producing a "look-alike" of the Wool Runners' design for nearly half the price. Unlike the Steve Madden suit, the company did not bring Amazon to court, which Zwillinger called "risky," and referred to Amazon's large legal teams. Later that week, Zwilinger and Brown wrote a Medium article inviting Amazon to use some of its materials, such as those made from sugarcane waste streams, to "jointly make a major dent in the fight against climate change."
