Photo: Tik Tok @crumblsydney
Crumbl Cookies has recently gone viral on TikTok after a pop-up shop in Australia appeared to curate an event featuring the iconic cookies. The pop up gained traction after posts from social media spread all across the city. After the flood of posts, cookie fanatics lined up eagerly to purchase them. However, to their surprise, the cookie pop-up was not actually affiliated with the Crumbl brand.
The popular American cookie chain Crumbl is known for its rotating flavors of delectable cookies. On September 20th, Crumbl Cookie Sydney decided to give Australians a taste of the infamous cookies by advertising a pop-up shop selling Crumbl cookies. The Sydney-based company ordered almost $4,000 worth of cookies that retail in the U.S. for roughly $5 each and imported them to their shop in North Bondi, selling each cookie for $17.50.
Photos: Crumbl Cookies
After the event, many patrons felt that the event was deceptive after learning the event was not sponsored by Crumbl and began to express their dissatisfaction with the cookies’ freshness, price, and the way the event was portrayed. Following the backlash, Crumbl Cookie Sydney sought to clear their name and express their intentions for the event. The company claimed they simply wanted to bring Crumbl to Australia. While their intentions may have been to spread the love for Crumbl, the event raises serious questions about Crumbl’s intellectual property being infringed upon.
The company stated that they did not use any of Crumbl’s trademarks in their videos or TikToks and that they never claimed to be an official Crumbl store. They also claimed that they were able to use the name “Crumbl Cookie” due to the trademark being available in Australia. It’s important to note that U.S. company Crumbl IP, LLC has a current application (filed in 2022) to register the “CRUMBL” trademark in Australia in relation to “bakery goods, namely, cookies,” according to Sydney-based attorney Nils Versemann.
The company further asserted that they had the right to import and resell the cookies as parallel imports, defined as “a product that has been brought into Australia but doesn’t have the specific permission of the product’s manufacturer to do so,” according to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission. While the company believes they did not violate any laws in hosting this event, there is a possibility that they breached Crumbl Cookies’ terms and conditions.
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