Forever 21 is no stranger to controversies. It is reported that the brand has embroiled in more than 50 lawsuits involving celebrities, luxury brands, union groups, its own employees and independent designers.

This year, the retailer made headline due to bankruptcy filing rumour. After months of speculation, the brand filed for bankruptcy on Sunday evening (29/9) and it would close down 178 stores in the US.

2001 - Asian Pacific American Legal Center v. Forever 21

Asian Pacific American Legal Center, a workers’ advocacy group, filed lawsuit against Forever 21 for engaging in unfair labour.

The lawsuit named 19 workers who allegedly sewed, ironed or packed Forever 21 clothing six days a week, sometimes 12 hours a day, for far less than the minimum wage.

2007 - Gwen Stefani v. Forever 21

Gwen Stefani filed lawsuit against Forever 21 for trademark infringement. Gwen’s reps claim that Forever 21 is “marketing, promoting, and selling products featuring a design ‘virtually indistinguishable’ from Harajuku’s signature heart/box logo.”

2007 - Anna Sui v. Forever 21

Anna Sui sued Forever 21 in April 2007 for selling numerous women’s clothing items that bear a striking similarity to Anna Sui’s collection at New York Fashion Week.

2007 - Trovata v. Forever 21

Trovata took Forever 21 to court for copyright infringement. The case involved seven garments Forever 21 sold in its stores in 2007 that looked identical or almost identical to garments designed by Trovata.

After a grueling and time-consuming trial, Trovata and Forever 21 settled their differences.

2007 - Diane von Fürstenberg v. Forever 21

Diane von Fürstenberg (DVF) filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Forever 21, alleging the retailer copied three of her dresses.

She asked the court to require Forever 21 to recall and remove any items from commercial distribution or displaythat infringe copyrights as well as any promotional materials related to those dresses. The complaint also asked for unspecified financial damages.

2011 - Feral Childe v. Forever 21

Moriah Carlson and Alice Wu, the designers behind the clothing line Feral Childe, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Forever 21 for allegedly copying one of their textile designs.

2011 - Center for Environmental Health v. Forever 21

Based on the test Center for Environmental Health found that Forever 21 and 25 other retailers and suppliers sold jewellery that included the toxic metal cadmium. A payment of $1.03 million and a 0.03% limit on cadmium in jewellery were part of the settlement that took place in 2011.

2012 - Mara Hoffman v. Forever 21

Forever 21 allegedly infringed designer Mara Hoffman’s ‘Chief’ prints. The case was settled out of court.

2012 - Carolyn Kellman v. Forever 21

Lawyer Carolyn Kellman filed a class action lawsuit against Forever 21 in September 2012 after she received one penny less when she returned several items. Kellman paid $14.46 for a pair of shorts but received $14.45 when she returned the shorts back to Forever 21.

Two months after her first return experience, she returned a $11.57 skirt she bought at Forever 21 only to receive $11.56.

According to The Huffington Post, these pennies added up as "the threshold for civil actions in her court district is $15,000 -- meaning, she had to find enough people to join the case so that she could cite 1.5 million pennies in damages (750,000 customers since 2007.)"

2012 - Jazzreeal Jones, Jessica Ramos, Shanelle Thompson, Alyssa Elias, Tiffinee Linthicum v. Forever 21

Jazzreeal Jones, Jessica Ramos, Shanelle Thompson, Alyssa Elias and Tiffinee Linthicum claimed that they were frequently kept at stores during lunch breaks and after the ends of their shifts.

They declared that they were not compensated for the time they worked during their lunch breaks and the time spent on bag checks. Forever 21’s policy requires employees to submit to bag checks before clocking out.

2012 - Department of Labour v. Forever 21

According Department of Labour (DOL), Forever 21 has reportedly failed to provide documentation regarding its apparel contractors and manufacturers.

Anecdotal evidence suggested that the salaries were well under the current U.S. federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

2013 - Mara Hoffman v. Forever 21

Designer Mara Hoffman filed another copyright lawsuit against the retailer for copying her ‘Arrow’ prints. The lawsuit was settled out of court before trial.

2014 - Tamar Estanboulian v. Forever 21

Forever 21 shopper Tamar Estanboulian filed class action lawsuit against the retailer, alleging that the retailer violated California law by requesting and recording shoppers’ credit card numbers and personal identification information at the point-of-sale.

2014 - OSHA v. Forever 21

U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommended fines in excess of $100,000 for three different retail locations in Northern New Jersey and Manhattan in New York City for "serious safety hazards", for which they had been cited since 2010.

2015 - Adobe v. Forever 21

Adobe filed lawsuit against Forever 21 for pirating Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Acrobat.

The lawsuit also contains claims of stealing from Autodesk and Corel. The parties managed to settle this suit out of court.

2015 - Granted Clothing v. Forever 21

Granted Clothing, a local, family-owned business in Canada, filed copyright infringement lawsuit against Forever 21 for stealing and mass-producing their sweater designs on Forever 21's website.

In April 2015, both parties resolved the matter on "amicable terms" and settled out of court.

2015 - Alexia Daskalakis v. Forever 21

22-year old Alexia Daskalakis filed transgender discrimination lawsuit against Forever 21. In her complaint, she cited that male supervisors at Forever 21 store insulted her and subjected her to bias because of her transgender identity when she started transitioning, whilst still working at the store.

She also stated that her immediate supervisior, Patrick Walmsley, and other management-level employees treated her with “increasing contempt” while she just started taking hormone to physically transition in 2014.

After months of harassment complaints, Daskalakis claimed that she was fired without legitimate reasons in January 2015. Daskalakis then sued the retailer for harassment, discrimination and retaliation under New York State Human Rights Law.

2015 - Raalon Kennedy v. Forever 21

Raalon Kennedy, who previously worked at Forever 21 as sales cleark, slapped the retailer with a lawsuit over its exploitative scheduling practices.

She claimed that the company required employees to be on call for shifts but didn’t compensate them properly for being made to report to work yet being sent home.

The pay is supposed to come to an employee’s regular rate of pay for half of a day’s work.

2015 - H&M v. Forever 21

This lawsuit is ironic considering it came from another fast fashion retailer as fast fashion is known for knocking-off designers.

H&M claimed Forever 21 ripped off one of its tote bag designs, which featured a row of palm trees with ‘Beach Please’ written across the front.

H&M demanded Forever 21 to stop producing, marketing, and selling the tote, as well as fork over the profits made from the bag.

2016 - Gucci v. Forever 21

Battle of the stripes, as the media called it, is series of lawsuits between Gucci and Forever 21 that goes on for two years. They reached settlement in 2018.

Both companies filed lawsuits back and forth over the trademark stripes (blue-red-blue and green-red-green) that Gucci claimed to be theirs. It started with Gucci sending letters demanding Forever 21 to pull their items bearing the ‘Gucci stripes.’

2016 - Tifany Patterson v. Forever 21

Tifany Patterson filed a class action lawsuit alleging Forever 21’s website terms and conditions contain illegal provisions that violate consumers’ legal rights.

Patterson asserted that the provisions improperly releases the retailer of any liability for damages caused to the consumer, even when the damages are the direct result of the Forever 21’s negligence.

2016 - Forever 21 v. Bastiat USA Inc.

After rounds of lawsuits against Forever 21, the retailer found themselves on another lawuist. However, this time, it’s Forever 21 who filed the lawsuit. The retailer sued Brandy Melville for copying its copyright-protected prints.

2016 - Mickael Louis v. Forever 21

Mickael Louis, is citing discrimination on the basis of sex and gender. According to Louis’s complaint, which was filed in the Eastern District of New York court this past week, he worked as an assistant store manager from January 2014 through April 2015 at Forever 21’s Kings Plaza location in Brooklyn, during which time a number of store managers, including Patrick Walmsley and Andy Liu, subjected him to “same-sex sexual harassment, racist nicknames and ridicule.”

Louis further alleges that the managers took part in “racial profiling” of both employees and customers, telling him to keep the number of black employees who work as cashiers to a minimum and to generally watch out for black shoppers, because they’re “ghetto” and “because they steal.”

2017 - Former employee v. Forever 21

Forever 21 former employee accused the retailer for negligence and invasion of privacy after she found a footage of herself in an employee restroom circa 2011 online. The retailer faced a $2 million lawsuit as a result.

2017 - PUMA v. Forever 21

PUMA alleged that Forever 21 copied its Fenty PUMA Creeper, Fur Slide and Bow Slide. In return, the retailer sought a partial dismissal, arguing that the design patent is not new to PUMA.

PUMA and Forever 21 settled the case more than a year later.

2017 - Francisco Leon, Ignacio Martinez, and Freddy Tovar v. Forever 21

Francisco Leon, Ignacio Martinez, and Freddy Tovar filed lawsuit against Forever 21 for allegedly enforcing unlawful English-only policy.

The employees were allegedly subject to hostility and verbal abuse from the store's assistant manager of merchandising, Amanda Harris and its stock manager, Luis Morales, for speaking Spanish amongst themselves and to Spanish-speaking customers.

2017 - Adidas v. Forever 21

Another stripe battle. Adidas sued Forever 21 over its three-stripe design signature on its athletic apparel.

Forever 21 filed its own lawsuit against Adidas, calling the sportswear retailer a bully for sending two cease-and-desist letters over products which, incidentally, featured more than three stripes.

2017 - Danny Clinch v. Forever 21

Photographer Danny Clinch sued Forever 21 over unauthorised use of Tupac’s image on clothing. The image has been published in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times. The lawsuit also involved Urban Outfitters.

2017 - Forever 21 v. C Luce and Cornerstone Apparel

Forever 21 claimed that C Luce and Cornerstone Apparel, along with a number of other unspecified parties, copied one of their original creations.

The retailer asked the court to order the destruction of all of the defendants’ infringing articles and to pay up all the profits they made from the sale of the infringing items, along with attorneys’ fees.

2017 - Mara Hoffman v. Forever 21

Designer Mara Hoffman filed copyright infringement lawsuit (again) against Forever 21 for copying the designer’s copyright-protected prints. The first and second lawsuit was filed in 2012 and 2013.

2017 - Valfré v. Forever 21

Fashion and accessories brand Valfré accused Forever 21 of selling phone cases and headphones that copied her own designs. The brand sent cease and desist letter to the retailer.

2018 - Jowharah Hameed-Bolden and Ali Conrad O’Brien v. Forever 21

Jowharah Hameed-Bolden and Ali Conrad O’Brien filed class action lawsuit against Forever 21 over data breach allegation.

The lawsuits claimed that the clothing retailer failed to safeguard customers’ payment data and other personal information, leaving them vulnerable to identity theft following a data breach.

2019 - Ariana Grande v. Forever 21

Ariana Grande filed a $10 million lawsuit against Forever 21 for creating Instagram posts that mimicked her style in ‘7 Rings’ music video and even hired a “look-alike" model to pose for the pictures.

 

Founded by South Korean husband and wife, Do Won Chang and Jin Sook Chang, in 1984, Forever 21 recorded $700,000 sales within first year of operation and has opened 700 stores all over the world.

Forever 21 positioned itself as fast fashion retailer for teenagers. The retailer expanded to beauty market and launched Riley Rose in 2017.

In 2016, the retailer posted $4 billion in revenue and down to $3.8 billion the following year.