AMAZON and Salvatore Ferragamo have filed two joint lawsuits against four individuals and three entities for counterfeiting Ferragamo’s products.
“The defendants attempted to offer the infringing products in Amazon’s store, violating Amazon’s policies, Ferragamo’s intellectual property rights, and the law,” said a joint statement released by the companies.
A lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington alleging the defendants conspired to use Ferragamo’s registered trademarks without authorization, to deceive customers about the authenticity and origin of the products and the affiliation with Ferragamo.
Amazon prohibits the sale of counterfeit products in its stores. It said that it had invested more than $500 million in 2019 to protect customers and brands from fraud and abuse, including counterfeit. “As a result of Amazon’s efforts, 99.9% of all products viewed by customers on Amazon have not received a valid counterfeit complaint,” the statement said.
In June 2020, Amazon launched its Counterfeit Crimes Unit, a global team that works with law enforcers. It has filed joint lawsuits with Italian luxury brand Valentino, cosmetics brand KF Beauty, family travel accessory brand JL Childress, and YETI.
Meanwhile, Ferragamo conducts both offline and online anti-counterfeiting measures. “In 2020, its online monitoring activities enabled the brand to intercept, block, and remove 3 million illicit profiles from the main social media platforms worldwide and approximately 94,000 counterfeit products were blocked and removed from online auction sites. Ferragamo has also filed actions against hundreds of illegal websites through civil proceedings in New York federal court, and was recently awarded $2.8 million in damages” it said in the statement.
Ferragamo also conducts offline investigations and pursues infringers through civil litigation and out-of-court proceedings. In 2020, 240,000 products bearing Ferragamo’s counterfeit trademarks were seized worldwide with the assistance of law enforcement authorities.