Wegmans is being hit with a lawsuit which contends that the fish market inside its newly opened Manhattan location is a knockoff of an East Village fish and sushi business called Osakana.
In a lawsuit filed this week in New York County Supreme Court, Osakana owner Yuji Haraguchi alleges that three companies shared his business secrets with Wegmans, resulting in an “uncanny and confusingly similar resemblance,” according to details in the filing. Haraguchi is seeking at least $1 million from the lawsuit.
Last year, Haraguchi decided to sell Osakana, which first opened in 2016. In the lawsuit, Haraguchi alleges that three companies — Culimer USA, Red Shell Sushi, and Culinary Collaborations — gained knowledge of secrets related to his business via that potential sale and then brought those secrets to Wegmans, according to the claim filed Tuesday.
Located on Astor Place, a one-block street in the lower part of Manhattan, the 87,500-square-foot Wegmans store opened its doors in October with a seafood concept called Sakanaya, an authentic Japanese-style fish market which has fresh fish delivered from the Toyosu Fish Market in Japan. The store also has an omakase experience (coursed sushi) which was a first for Wegmans.
The opening of Sakanaya came just months after Culimer USA, a business that ultimately played a large role in opening Wegmans’ fish market, had approached Haraguchi to buy his East Village spot, according to the claim.
The two businesses are located just blocks from one another. The lawsuit also claims that Wegmans even poached the name and font associated with Haraguchi’s business. “Even the names Osakana and Sakanaya are nearly identical, but for the removal of the letter “o” and adding the letters “ya” at the end of Osakana. Defendants are also using an identical font as that of Osakana which only further causes confusion.”
“The confusion between the brands is further fueled given that the products, both sushi take-out products, are identical and both target the same customers.”
Wegmans did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication of this story.
