Tracy Anderson is suing her former employee Megan Roup.
The 47-year-old celebrity trainer - whose clients includethe likes of Gwyneth Paltrow - has filed a lawsuit against the owner of Sculpt Society and is seeking damages and a jury trial.
Tracy’s complaint, filed in the US District Court Central District California on Monday (11.07.22) and first reported by Fashion Law, accuses Megan – who worked for her from 2011 to 2017 – of copyright infringement.
The complaint claims the trainer - who counts Sofia Richie, 23, and Martha Hunt, 33, among her famous fans - of having “access to all material necessary to replicate the TA (Tracy Anderson) Method and related business" and alleged "she wasted no time in doing so".
Megan started her successful fitness company a month after leaving Tracy, the filing adds.
It also accuses Megan of capitalising “on the years of research, money, and sweat equity Anderson and Plaintiffs put into developing the TA Method and the business surrounding it to the detriment”.
Tracy says a “significant” amount of Megan’s videos on the Sculpt Society site were created “using Confidential Information Roup learned, accessed, or was exposed to while employed”.
The suit claims Megan’s ‘Trainer Agreement’ she allegedly signed when she started with Tracy prohibits her from using any of the “Confidential Information”.
It says: “Defendants’ false and/or misleading public statements and advertising create the false impression that Roup, on her own, created the choreography movements, sequencing, and routines that comprise the (Tracey Anderson Method) and conducted the research and development that resulted in it.”
Meanwhile, Tracy previously opened up on how she adapted to training with Gwyneth during the COVID lockdown.
She said: “Gwyneth and I worked out together yesterday in masks, we were both in masks. That was something new.”
She added about moving to Zoom sessions for other customers: “A lot of my clients during this pandemic, especially in the beginning, I pivoted really fast because I didn't know that people were going to need to keep moving or they were just going to get fear-locked.”
