Wait a minute, all the people saying there's no legal recourse. What if you are an artist and you paint something and someone buys it and sells it again representing it as their own work. I don't think it would be a problem if they lady is selling it and admitting that it's someone else's work but she must be claiming it's hers and isn't that where the legality issue comes in?
The most serious legal issue here is the probable gross violations of food regulations as the OP suspects. We are talking about a perishable food commodity here.
This is NOT a work of art that has a reasonable shelf life (as an all-dried-gumpaste sculpture would have). What can be copyrighted is the cake design, the photo image, the recipe, the instructions for special methods. NOT the physical cake itself.
The OP could lose her business license and be fined, and various other nasty consequences could arise as a result of this illegal activity. She needs to take all steps necessary to protect her business and the customers. Identifying the actual maker of the cake under the cakeboard is one way to stop this evil person from her evil ways.
Selling food from an unlicensed establishment can make a lot of people sick. That kind of action makes me sick to my stomach everytime I read about it. My neighbours are still not buying beef some months after gross contamination in one packing plant, even though the inspection sticker clearly shows that the beef in the store is coming from a different plan altogether.
well you could always sell her a cake with antifreeze filling. Ought to solve that problem.
Not at all serious. I can't believe someone would do something like that :(
I had to tell a few lies to get all the information I needed from her... didn't really feel bad about it either :)
but I was able to get her address and a list of all the cakes she has ordered from me. All in text messages so I can use them as evidence later if needed. After thinking about it, I'm really not sure I can do anything about it. People can resell anything they purchase I guess... the only thing I think I may be able to do is get the health department involved since I'm fairly confident she isn't licenesed... I was advised by the health department that I could not sell food to someone and then them resell it... I have to have a whole different license for that. So I'm not sure if that's something that can be used or not. I will no longer be selling to her. She's wanting to bring me a deposit on this cake tomorrow, so I've advised the customer to just cancel her order with her. The mean ticked off part of me wanted to let the jerk pay me a deposit on it first... but 2 wrongs don't make a right... although I would be getting back money she has made off me! lol
If they told you that, then you need to call them immediately and tell them that you just found out she's doing this and that you were unaware that she was doing it, and what recourse do you have? Just to make sure that you don't get in trouble for what she's doing, of course. Not to get her busted, of course *cough cough.* Maybe the state department of taxation would be interested in her reselling and not collecting sales tax, too...
All this advice is based on the premise that the other baker is "claiming" that the cakes are her own, while in reality, she doesn't have to claim any such thing. How many customers are going to ask their baker if she actually baked and decorated the cake they're buying? It's a basic assumption on the customer's part. While it's unethical, it's not necessarily criminal.
As far as I can see, the only issue here is reselling the cakes. If one of her customers has a problem and decides to sue her, is she going to admit that she didn't bake it and throw the OP under the bus? Probably.
This person needs to be notified immediately to stop, and the HD needs to know what's going on. Definitely protect your business and yourself as far as the HD is concerned and your problem with this other "baker" will probably be resolved by them.
It's your job to know the market value of your cakes and it sure sounds like you didn't. Apparently you were selling your cakes at wholesale prices. What this person did was take advantage of your not doing your homework. I don't understand why you're thinking of suing anyone as being this far off of the value of what you sell seems like something one wouldn't want to advertise.
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Original message sent by howsweet
It's your job to know the market value of your cakes and it sure sounds like you didn't. Apparently you were selling your cakes at wholesale prices. What this person did was take advantage of your not doing your homework. I don't understand why you're thinking of suing anyone as being this far off of the value of what you sell seems like something one wouldn't want to advertise.
APurchasing products and reselling them for a profit happens all the time, it is called arbitrage. Arbitrage is perfectly legal and it can be quite profitable if vendors misprice a market or there are other market inefficiences you can take advantage of.
I actually used to do some of this myself during the .com boom by purchasing loss leaders from online retailers and reselling them on eBay.
AYou CANNOT pass someone else's work off as your own. Bottom line. Hope you talked to a lawyer so this woman doesn't continue this trend and steal someone else's work. It's not the money that's the issue, it's the credit for the work that she's being robbed of.
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You CANNOT pass someone else's work off as your own. Bottom line. Hope you talked to a lawyer so this woman doesn't continue this trend and steal someone else's work. It's not the money that's the issue, it's the credit for the work that she's being robbed of.
dwy, this thread is over a year old--it's easy to miss the dates and respond as you are doing with good advice but just wanted to let you know it's problaby been resolved already--cc has a very good search option now so old threads pop up often with new posts--you are not alone
When I owned a cake shop for over 35 years someone was doing that to me as well.I just raised my prices and why worry .With our company name on the bottom of the cake board and on the boxes.She could change the box but not the boards.She finally stopped ordering cakes.So raise your art work fee to her.
I don't think legally she is doing anything wrong, unless she doesn't have a license. We sell cakes to restaurants all the time that resell the cakes. I would just stop taking orders from her, and also spread the word throughout your little cake community that this is what she is doing, and that will put her out of "business" without much hassle.
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