Tealive outlets bubbling with customers despite court order

Loob Holding failed to get a stay order against a court decision prohibiting its outlets being operated similar to Chatime.

A Tealive outlet in the Klang Valley sees brisk business with many people lining up to buy its drinks.

PETALING JAYA: Several Tealive outlets are still open for business despite their operator Loob Holding Sdn Bhd failing to get a stay against a court’s decision prohibiting it from operating its business similar to Chatime, the franchise under which Tealive outlets had operated.

Checks by FMT found Tealive outlets were doing brisk business.

At one outlet in Klang, a worker said staff had not received any directive following the appeal court’s ruling on Friday.

“It’s business as usual, and we did not get any instruction to stop,” she said.

Some customers were also aware of the court decision.

“I came here to buy drinks for me and my family,” said a customer.

Another customer known as James said he would not mind buying his favourite “bubble milk tea” from either Tealive or Chatime as their menus were similar.

The Tealive brand was created by Loob Holding after it exited a franchise agreement with La Kaffa International Ltd, the owner of Chatime, a popular bubble milk tea brand from Taiwan, last year.

Loob was formerly a Chatime franchise holder in Malaysia.

On Friday, the Court of Appeal denied a stay order to Loob. Judge Hamid Sultan Abu Backer said the special circumstances rule, relied on by Loob to seek the stay order, was not applicable in a case of self-induced misconduct.

The dispute between La Kaffa and Loob started in early December 2016 when the Taiwanese company terminated the master franchise agreement between the two parties even though there were more than 20 years left on the deal.

La Kaffa said the Court of Appeal, in its earlier decision to grant an injunction, had considered the factual circumstances of Loob’s wholesale duplication of the Chatime system, with outlets being renamed practically overnight.

There are 179 Tealive outlets operating nationwide. -FMT