Designer sues Australian Shopify over alleged ghost stores he claims copied his work 3,929 times

Court action represents rare attempt to hold global online platforms to account for allegedly hosting scam digital shopfronts Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A young poster designer is suing Shopify in Australia for allegedly refusing to take down two online “ghost stores” he claims imitated his website and stole his work. Ryan Billington, 20, launched copyright infringement proceedings in the federal circuit court in Brisbane earlier this month against the multinational e-commerce company and two websites he alleges stole “substantially all” his designs. The court action represents a rare attempt to hold global platforms to account for allegedly hosting so-called ghost stores, rather than targeting the operators of the clandestine sites, who may not be located in the countries they claim to be. In court documents, Billington describes the websites he alleges copied his own as similar to the ghost stores that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) last year urged Shopify and Meta to take action to stop. Ghost stores exist only in a digital sense and often present themselves as legitimate brands to dupe customers who receive poor qualit