Instacart’s new party-centric app Fizz, launched on Tuesday, could go flat following a trademark lawsuit filed on Wednesday by Fizz Social Corp. in a California district court.
The New York City-based social media and commerce company, which targets college students and others in the Gen Z demographic, argues in the lawsuit that San Francisco-based last-mile delivery company Instacart and its business partner Partiful are competing head-on and using the company’s trademarked name.
In the app store, the plaintiff describes its app as “your go-to place to connect with the people who matter to you most.”
“On Fizz, you can join your school’s private community or your nearby community to share and discover authentic content through text, video, image, direct message, and more. With every post, you have the ability to be anonymous, allowing you to be your most authentic self,” the app description noted.
The Fizz Social Marketplace offers users a platform to “Buy and Sell With Your Peers, Safely: Browse clothing, TVs, textbooks, cars, and more in the comfort of your private community. Safety and efficiency are the top priorities in the peer-to-peer Fizz Marketplace.”
Fizz Social said in the lawsuit that Instacart is a “blatant attempt to misappropriate” its brand.
An Instacart spokesperson declined to comment in response to questions from CSP's sister publicationSupermarket News.
Instacart’s Fizz app offers party supply delivery for a flat fee of $5 and is “tailor-made for groups” due to its ability to invite friends to contribute to the order separately.
Fizz Social said in the lawsuit that it has used the trademark since 2022 and has “dedicated significant time, energy, and resources to developing distinctive social networking services that facilitate event discovery, party planning, and community building among the Gen Z community.”
The app is currently active in more than 41 states, according to the lawsuit.
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