Australian fans of a popular American cookie brand were outraged when a Sydney pop-up event selling the cookies was revealed to not be run by the company, but instead run by “fans”.
Despite being founded in 2017, Crumbl Cookies has only recently taken the internet by storm, with its loaded cookies flooding the feeds of dessert lovers all over the world.
Endorsed by influencers and celebrities, Crumbl claims to be the fastest-growing cookie company in the US, selling over one million cookies every day.
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So when TikTok account @crumblsydney popped up, claiming the famous cookies would be coming to Australia, fans were over the moon.
The account began posting TikToks in late September, showing professionally edited videos of the cookies being made and spruiking a pop-up event in North Bondi on September 29.
One of the videos, showing a Crumbl cookie next to the Sydney Opera House went viral, amassing over 600,000 views.
Hype had well and truly been created.
Accodingly, when September 29 came about eager fans lined up in droves outside a shop on Old South Head Rd, North Bondi where they discovered the cookies were selling for $17.50 each — a staggering increase compared with the US price of about $A7 to $A8.
While the day was a success at first, the account was forced to issue a statement on Monday after fans made the realisation that whoever had organised the event was not associated with Crumbl Cookies at all.
Instead, those involved had flown over to the US, purchased the cookies, flown back to Australia and then resold them.
Many were outraged at the truth, saying the organisers of the pop-up event were “deceptive” and had purported to be the real Crumbl Cookies brand.
“They deny being Crumbl Cookies yet their name is deceptive. Instead of creating an original brand, they chose to impersonate,” one person said.
“It’s straight up fraud,” another said.
In its bio, the TikTok account states the owners are not endorsed by Crumbl and are just “fans importing”.
It’s unclear if this was always in the bio or if it was added after the backlash.
The account had posted about the fact that they were flying to the states to pick up the cookies however among the 41 videos on their page, had only made the fact clear in four TikToks.
Due to the nature of TikTok, many were unaware about these videos, having only seen the well edited, professional looking TikToks pop up on their feed.
In a statement to 7NEWS.com.au one of the organisers of the pop-up said he did not obtain permission from Crumbl to host the event.
Toby, who did not want to provide his last name, said he used Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) advice on parallel imports guidelines as a resource.
According to the ACCC, a parallel import is “when a business sells a product that has been brought into Australia, but the business doesn’t have the specific permission of the product’s manufacturer to sell the product in Australia”.
Toby said 840 cookies were bought from a Crumbl store in the US last Tuesday and then kept in the fridge until they were sold on Sunday.
He said the price of the cookies were due to costs of getting the product back to Australia, and that his intention was “not to generate substantial profit”.
“The logistics were particularly expensive as we had to book last-minute flights due to an unexpected flight issue,” Toby said.
“There were many other costs including import duties and taxes, customs brokerage fees, venue, microwaves, tables, marketing expenses, and wages for our staff on the day.
“These were of considerable expense.”
Toby said the majority of the backlash the event has faced was from people who did not attend.
People who saw the videos on TikTok promoting the event did not seek “additional context” and if they did would have realised they were not affiliated with Crumbl, he said.
“Our goal was to bring Crumbl’s cookies to fans who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to try them. If Crumbl were to send us a cease-and-desist, we would comply immediately,” Toby said.
“If Crumbl had reached out and expressed any concerns, we would have respected their wishes and halted future events—but they have not done so at this point.”
The organisers had planned to run further pop-up stores in other states, however, have since decided to pull the pin.
A spokesperson from the ACCC said the issue was a “private dispute” and outside of its remit.
NSW Fair Trading and Crumbl Cookies have been contacted for comment.
