Shoemaker Crocs has accused competitor Joybees of stealing its trade secrets, Fox News reported.
Crocs filed its lawsuit Thursday in federal court in Colorado. This is a different lawsuit than the one filed in 2021. Crocs alleges that Joybees and its CEO, Kellen McCarvel, a former Crocs executive, stole trade secrets and engaged in unfair competition.
According to the complaint, McCarvel stole several thousand documents containing highly confidential and proprietary Crocs business information and the contents of a Crocs email account. He would have downloaded this information using a personal USB stick.
Meanwhile, in its counterclaims, Joybees alleged that Crocs attempted to monopolize the market, in violation of US and state antitrust laws.
Lawyers for Joybees accused Crocs of anti-competitive behavior, saying “consumers have been deprived of all the benefits of competition,” which include “choice, quality and innovation.”
The company also denied all allegations against CEO McCarvel of stealing Crocs intellectual property. The latter said in a statement on Friday that it “will protect and defend its intellectual property and proprietary information from theft and misuse by third parties.”
Crocs had sales of $3.6 billion last year, and the company’s website says the company has sold more than 850 million pairs of shoes since 2002.