Speedo rival takes its suit to U.S. court

Speedo rival takes its suit to U.S. court

By Karen Crouse Published: May 16, 2008

The swimsuit war has spilled into the court of law.

TYR Sport filed a lawsuit this week against Warnaco Swimwear, the parent company of Speedo and the maker of the LZR Racer high-tech suit, citing unlawful restraint of trade and an attempt to monopolize the competitive swimwear marketplace.

Also named in the lawsuit, which was first reported Thursday by The Los Angeles Times, are USA Swimming; the U.S. national team director, Mark Schubert; and the Olympic distance freestyler Erik Vendt, a former pitchman for TYR.

In documents filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, TYR describes a climate in which elite athletes have been led to believe they cannot excel on the world stage unless they wear Speedo's newest high-tech suit, which was designed with the help of NASA and was unveiled in February.

Among the allegations by TYR are that Speedo, USA Swimming and Schubert systematically "combined to engage in a campaign of falsely disparaging the products of Speedo's competitors, including TYR, for the purpose of inducing competitive swimmers to refrain from doing business with Speedo's competitors."

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I don't know about the validity of the court case, but I think Speedo made a huge error when allowing the Lazer suit. "Technical doping" indeed.