Bikini Body Training Company takes rival trainer to Court to halt launch of fitness app

The Bikini Body Training Company, previously owned by high profile fitness trainer Kayla Itsines is seeking a Supreme Court injunction to stop the launch of a potentially competing app.

South Australia's Supreme Court heard this week that Cassandra Olholm, a Queensland-based former employee of The Bikini Body Training Company, plans to launch her own fitness app called ‘Train with Cass’.

However, Olholm’s contract with The Bikini Body Training Company prohibits her from launching any rival app until February next year.

On Tuesday, the Court heard Olholm planned to launch her app in a matter of weeks despite her contract with her former employer containing a 12-month non-compete clause that will cease at the end of February.

Olholm's lawyer, Thomas McFarlane, said his client was preparing to launch her app and would argue that she should only be constrained by a six-month non-compete clause.

The applicant lawyer for The Bikini Body Training Company told the court Olholm still remained in the Sweat apps content, including in fitness videos.

As reported by the ABC, Nicholas Swan for The Bikini Body Training Company told the Court “if you go onto the computer and you want to get onto my clients app and get into a particular program, you can see Ms Olholms face.

"I'm putting that forward around surrounding facts this isn't just somebody who's left after mowing some lawns and taken up another job with a competitor.

"This is a situation where the online presence is a crucial part of the product."

Judge Graham Dart asked if the companies could avoid expensive lawyers and solve the dispute outside the Supreme Court.

He advised "instead of spending hundreds of thousands dollars each, why don't you just compromise and make it nine months and she starts on the 1st of January, then no-one has to spend money.

"Just trying to stop the parties spending a lot of money on legals from the beginning of March next year, the respondent can do this anyway."

However, the applicants lawyer said it was "peak time" for the fitness training app during summer, so the company wanted to proceed with the injunction order.

The applicant's lawyers also asked to impose an interim order to stop Olholm promoting her app on her social media in the meantime.

McFarlane said he believed his client should still be able to advertise while the proceedings were underway, and it was her decision to do so.

Judge Dart rejected the interim application and the case will return to court next Tuesday.

The Bikini Body Training Company's Sweat app was sold by founders Kayla Itsines and Tobi Pearce to a USA-based iFIT Health & Fitness Inc (iFIT) for approximately $400 million in 2021.

Images: Fitness coach Cass Olholm plans to launch her own proposed fitness app called 'Train with Cass' (top, credit: Instagram/@trainwithcass) and Kayla Itsines co-founder of The Bikini Body Training Company (below, credit: Facebook/k.itsines).