Copycat vendor allegations lead to court battle between Richmond Night Market and food truck | Daily Hive

Tochi

A courtroom battle is brewing between the Richmond Night Market and a Metro Vancouver dessert truck after the vendor says it is being sued for speaking out against a “copycat” stand that replaced them at the annual summer event.

Tochi is a food truck offering “Canada’s first Hong Kong-style mini French toast” with mochi. The stand debuted as a stall at the night market in 2022.

Picard Yiu, co-owner of Tochi, told Daily Hive that issues arose at the end of the 2023 night market season.

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“After being given a ‘non-answer’ as to whether we could return to the Richmond Night Market as a vendor or not, around September to November in 2023, we had decided to invest in a food truck in order to be able to continue running our business,” said Yiu.

“We then learned from multiple past colleagues in spring 2024 that a new “Mochi French Toast” stand was going to be at the Richmond Night Market that summer,” he claimed.

“We saw photos of their stall placement location, banners, neon signs, and product appearance — a remarkably similar product to ours.”

Tochi announced on their Instagram page that they would no longer be at the Richmond Night Market because they now operated a food truck. Daily Hive interviewed the food truck owners last summer about their experiences as a business and past night market vendor.

According to Yiu, the media interviews and the comment sections on Tochi’s social media pages led to the dessert truck receiving a “Cease and Desist” letter from the Richmond Night Market last summer.

The Tochi food truck (Marco Ovies/Daily Hive)

“Richmond Night Market had issues with what we had said about our experience,” said Yiu. “They also were not fond of the negative comments about the Richmond Night Market in our social media posts,” he claimed.

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What does the Richmond Night Market lawsuit allege?

The notice of civil claim filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia by Firework Productions Ltd., the company that owns and operates the Richmond Night Market, alleges that the defendants, Tochi Desserts Ltd., have “engaged in a targeted campaign of making and endorsing defamatory statements concerning Firework” since Spring 2024.

“These defamatory statements have been, and continue to be, disseminated across numerous social media and news platforms and available to the public at large without limitation,” said Firework Productions in the civil claim. “The primary sources of the defamatory statements are published through public accounts under the power and control of Tochi on the social media platforms Instagram and TikTok.”

Richmond Night Market (sen yang/ Shutterstock)

“As owner of both its Instagram and TikTok accounts, Tochi is liable for not only its own defamatory comments but also those posted by third parties. Tochi is not a passive publisher – rather it has created a forum of engagement for the Instagram statements and the TikTok statements to be made.”

Firework Productions also claims that Tochi’s “liking” of a comment on the social media platforms constitutes knowledge and endorsements of the “defamatory comments.” It also alleges that several of Tochi’s owners made additional defamatory comments online, during media interviews, and at the PNE Fairgrounds in 2024.

The notice of civil claim states that Firework Productions is seeking relief including a declaration that the defendants have unlawfully defamed the plaintiff, punitive damages, general damages, and an “interim, interlocutory and permanent order” stopping Tochi and its owners from making, publishing, disseminating, or broadcasting defamatory words about Firework, Richmond Night Market, and/or its management or principals.

Daily Hive reached out to Raymond Cheung, owner and organizer of the Richmond Night Market, who confirmed that Richmond Night Market and Tochi Desserts Ltd. are engaged in a legal dispute.

“The court proceedings are public record, and we do not have further comment on those proceedings at this time.”

Tochi’s response to the lawsuit

Yiu told Daily Hive that Richmond Night Market seems to believe that online comments are Tochi’s responsibility and that the content of the statements is false or misleading in some form or fashion.

“One of their ‘examples’ cites our Instagram post in which we posted about how Tochi would no longer be at the Richmond Night Market. In this post, we did not say anything negative about them but were simply sending a message to our loyal following. The comments from the community were mainly in support of our journey, but some had negative sentiments towards the Richmond Night Market,” he said.

“Richmond Night Market also felt the need to drag my girlfriend into this by naming and including her in this lawsuit as a defendant. This is despite the fact there are only two comments made by her on her own personal Instagram account.”

The food truck owner added that he and co-owners Andrew Yong and Jeffrey Yiang feel as if they are being bullied by someone whom they feel helpless against.

Tochi

“There is no way we could outspend them in court or legal fees,” shared Yiu. “We feel that we are being punished for expressing our opinions and beliefs freely.

“We are trying to be optimistic about the outcome, but it is difficult. We hope that we can muster some community support behind us and our business in order to persevere through these tough times.”

Tochi has launched a GoFundMe titled “Help Us Save our Food Truck Business” which has raised over $9,300 so far.

“We’re really thankful to our friends, family, and community for the great support for our GoFundMe and sharing our story. We have been getting a lot of support and appreciate all the time and love we have received.”

With files from Daily Hive Staff

Editors note: Some details of this story have been removed due to the ongoing court case.