Ryan Billington, a 20-year-old poster designer who runs the online shop radialposters.com from New Zealand, launched copyright infringement proceedings in Australia's federal circuit court against Shopify and two websites he alleges stole “substantially all” his designs. Billington raised 3,929 instances in which the sites clutchposters.com and audibleposters.com allegedly copied his designs, lodging 45 infringement notices with Shopify and having his solicitor request the sites be taken down before Shopify, according to court documents, never responded. The case represents a rare attempt to hold a global platform accountable for allegedly hosting “ghost stores” (digital storefronts that present themselves as legitimate brands to dupe customers), and follows a July 2024 ACCC warning after a Guardian Australia investigation identified more than 140 ghost stores built using Shopify's software, with both allegedly infringing websites taken down nine days after Billington filed suit.
