THG locks horns with its Australian distributor in high court battle

The ecommerce giant took Nutrition Depot, its exclusive distributor of MyProtein products in China and Macau, to court in September last year over a breach of contract.

However, the Queensland-based distributor has accused THG of being involved in an alleged Chinese tax fraud scheme, claiming it did not receive the goods in question.

The distributor claims that THG had worked “in conjunction” with Chinese companies to “order overseas goods in small quantities and in multiple batches using special order codes” to avoid taxes on imports.

Nutrition Depot claims the goods were then resold on the market and THG  “benefited from increased sales” as a result of the deal and that senior managers at THG were made aware of the situation.

Invoices worth £1.4m remained unsettled.

In a legal response to the accusations, THG has denied any involvement, saying it “was not aware that any goods so ordered were for resale in avoidance of Chinese customs and taxes (if that was the case)” and denied partnering with the group of Chinese companies.

THG argued the accusations were “incoherent, inadequately particularised and, in places, nonsensical”.

A spokesman for THG told The Telegraph: “THG is the claimant in this action, which we launched as a last resort to recover unpaid debts. We are extremely confident in our position and the claims made by Nutrition Depot are entirely without merit.”