Cartier sues Tiffany & Co for ‘High Jewelry’ secrets theft
Jeweller Cartier has sued rival Tiffany & Co, accusing the company of poaching a Cartier manager in order to gain access to trade secrets related to its high-end jewellery collection.
Cartier claims that Tiffany hired former Cartier assistant manager for merchandising Megan Marino in order to learn more about its “High Jewelry” range, which is priced between $50,000 to $10 million per piece.
In the complaint, submitted to the Supreme Court of the State of New York on Monday, February 28, Cartier said: “[Tiffany] used quick money and title advancement to lure away an under-qualified employee from a successful competitor, knowing she lacked the experience and knowledge to perform a high jewellery manager role”.
Upon Marino’s hire, Tiffany’s president and vice president for merchandising “repeated and knowingly” solicited confidential Cartier information from her and documented these interactions via emails and texts.
According to an affidavit submitted alongside the complaint, Marino handed in her notice in December 2021, and said she was leaving to work in an “entirely new space”.
However, Cartier became aware through a Linkedin update that Marino now held the position of merchandising manager in January 2022.
Upon further investigation, Cartier noted that Marino had accessed drives, files and documents detailing “very sensitive and valuable” information on Cartier’s High Jewelry business, which she supposedly had “no business” in accessing.
These documents included multiple Excel worksheets containing stock lists, costs and pricing information, marketing materials, upcoming merchandising activities and a PowerPoint presentation containing “retail network mapping information”.
According to Cartier, this included information on how to reverse engineer how Cartier allocates, merchandises and prices its High Jewelry range.
“To be clear, Ms Marino had no business need to access the Confidential and Proprietary Information,” the affidavit from Cartier employee Debra Stoen claimed.
“The Confidential and Proprietary Information is entirely specific to Cartier, its proprietary processee and strategies, as opposed to generally applicable informaticñ regarding the High Jewelry business.”
Cartier has asked the court to rule that Marino and Tiffany breached contract, misappropriated trade secrets, and interfered with business relations. The jeweller requests a preliminary and permanent injunction barring Tiffany from using or disclosing the trade secret information.
It has also requested that Tiffany produce documents within six days and conduct numerous depositions video calls.
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