Can be found online and in stores, often at reputable retailers or brands, usually at a cheaper price than the original items that inspired them.
Knock offs how to#
But how to tell the difference? As a primer, here’s a quick definition of each: Brands such as Coach, Tory Burch, Cartier and Polo Ralph Lauren have all won judgments in the hundreds of millions of dollars against web sites selling counterfeits - although most of these are in China, and the brands are unlikely ever to recover the money.Īs for knockoffs - they aren’t illegal unless a brand can prove that the resemblance is so close that the consumer is misled. A counterfeit is clearly illegal and brands and governments spend millions fighting those because, in some cases, the sale of counterfeit goods can help fuel terrorism. In the fashion world, and even with other products, there are fine - very fine - distinctions between a counterfeit, a knockoff and a replica. Moreover, were any of these transactions illegal? In scenario B she was lured away from doing so, but were the shoppers being deceived? Perhaps. In each of these situations, the shopper has failed to buy an authentic Louis Vuitton Speedy 30 handbag.
She clicks “buy.”įinally, Consumer D, in Chicago, is online and Googles “Speedy 30 cheap,” which takes her to several e-commerce sites that offer the Speedy 30 with monogram for $32. The site says it is leather and has brass fittings. It looks nice, but doesn’t have the monogram. Then, in London, Consumer C Googles “Speedy 30 replica,” which results in a page that includes dozens of YouTube reviews of the bag and several web sites offering a “Louis Vuitton Damier Speedy 30” for $170.
The companies said that Instagram direct messages and shared links were used to instruct social media followers about how to buy knock-offs at Amazon.Harper’s Bazaar Icons Party at Bloomingdales NYFW Spring 2023 Those involved in the scheme "advertised their counterfeit products on third-party social media websites by using 'hidden links' to direct their followers to the counterfeit Cartier products, while disguising the products as non-branded in the listings in the Amazon Store," the lawsuit said. The "sophisticated campaign" sought to avoid detection by having the social media influencer pitch jewelry as being Cartier, but the vendors made no mention of the luxury brand at their shops at Amazon, the lawsuit said.īuyers, however, were sent jewelry bearing Cartier trademarks, the companies alleged in court documents.Ī second lawsuit accuses an Amazon store operating under the name "YFXF" last year of selling counterfeit Cartier goods, disguising jewelry as unbranded at the website but sending buyers knock-offs bearing the company's trademark. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant has booted vendors targeted in the suit from its platform and teamed with Cartier to urge a federal court to make them pay damages and legal costs for hawking knock-off jewelry there from June 2020 through June 2021. "We don't just want to chase them away from Amazon - we want to stop them for good," Smith added. "By using social media to promote counterfeit products, bad actors undermine trust and mislead customers," Amazon associate general counsel Kebharu Smith said in a statement.
The influencer appeared to be a woman in Handan, China, and the merchants involved in the "counterfeiting scheme" were traced to other Chinese cities, according to court documents.
The online personality used sites like Instagram to pitch Cartier jewelry such as "Love bracelets" to followers and then provided links that led to counterfeit versions on Amazon, one of two lawsuits alleged. court to accuse a social media influencer of working with Chinese firms to sell knock-offs of the luxury brand's jewelry on the e-commerce giant's site. Amazon and Cartier joined forces Wednesday in U.S.
0 kommentar(er)
