Cartier has filed a lawsuit at New York State Supreme Court against Tiffany & Co for allegedly trying to access “trade secrets” through the hiring of an ex-Cartier employee, IDEX Online reports.
According to the lawsuit, Tiffany hired junior manager Megan Marino for her knowledge of Cartier’s “high jewelry collection of pieces priced at up to $10 million,” then fired her after just five weeks. In an affidavit accompanying the Cartier lawsuit, reported by Reuters and quoted in the piece, Marino said that Tiffany was “more interested in hiring me as a source of information than as a high jewelry manager.”
Cartier said: “Tiffany’s commercial ambition crossed the line between the ordinary course of business and unfair competition.” Tiffany said in a statement: “We deny the baseless allegations and will vigorously defend ourselves.”
