Last month, Chris Burch filed suit against ex-wife and business partner Tory Burch, claiming breach of contract and tortious interference. Now, Tory Burch is firing back. The designer filed answer and counterclaims to Chris’ suit this morning, WWD is reporting.
Tory denied all of Chris’ allegations, including the one that she somehow interfered with the sale process of his Tory Burch shares. In her filing, Tory said Chris “only has himself to blame” for the sale falling through.
She also outlined how Chris Burch allegedly ripped off the Tory Burch brand for his new venture, C.Wonder. According to the counterclaim, in the two plus years leading up to the launch of C.Wonder, Chris “repeatedly asked for and was given full complete access to competitively sensitive information about the company and its best-selling products,” including a confidential report analyzing the Tory Burch brand’s business strategy, customer base and performance.
Chris allegedly did this under the guise of a consulting agreement with Tory, the purpose of which was to help the company identify factories that could manufacture Tory Burch products. But instead, Tory alleges, he used the confidential trade secrets to build his own competitive C.Wonder brand. And Tory paid him $11 million, as per the consulting agreement, to do it.
If that’s true, it’s no wonder Tory is pissed. And she’s definitely looking to get even. The designer is claiming breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, equitable relief, unfair competition, misappropriation of trade secrets and deceptive trade practices. She’s asking for injunctive relief (which would stop Chris’ suit against her), damages and attorneys’ fees and expenses
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