Estée Lauder is being sued by a self-described “disruptive” startup that accused the cosmetics giant of effectively putting it out of business by stealing technology to boost sales from jet-setting travelers in hotels.

In a complaint filed in Manhattan Federal Court, Nomi Beauty said Estée Lauder has been “driving literally billions in new revenue” to itself after abandoning contracts in 2018 and 2020, including means to determine consumers’ actual preferences for cosmetics instead of their stated preferences.

Nomi – the name is a homophone for ‘know me,’ as in the customer – said its “secret sauce” was intended to help the parent of Clinique and Mac lipstick generate more revenue from luxury hotel duty-free shops and in-room purchases, and become less dependent on traditional retail stores.

Rather than honor its contracts or follow through on discussions to purchase Nomi outright, Estée Lauder allegedly starved Nomi’s hotel partners of products, while rolling out competing programs in China, Costa Rica, Malaysia, the UK and the US.

These programs “rely on the very same trade secrets Nomi had been educating Lauder about for years,” the complaint said.

Nomi is seeking unspecified compensatory, punitive and triple damages.

Estée Lauder did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“Nomi’s stolen innovations brought Estée Lauder into the information age, and Estée Lauder continues to profit from them wildly,” Nomi’s lawyer Matthew Schwartz said in an email.

Both companies are based in New York.

Since last February, Estée Lauder has pursued a ‘Beauty Reimagined’ strategy, including prestige launches and a streamlining of its supply chain, to revive sliding sales. The strategy also called for up to 7000 job cuts.

• Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot, of Reuters.