Amazon, long railed for its role in the proliferation of counterfeits, filed six lawsuits this week as part of its ongoing fight against fakes.
This latest round of litigation included two joint lawsuits with Salvatore Ferragamo. The defendants—four individuals and three entities—attempted to offer the infringing products on Amazon’s store, violating its policies, the Italian luxury goods brand’s intellectual property rights and the law, the online marketplace said.
Amazon filed the suits in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington Thursday. They allege the defendants conspired to use Salvatore Ferragamo’s registered trademarks, without authorization, to deceive customers about the authenticity and origin of the products and their affiliation with Salvatore Ferragamo.
Salvatore Ferragamo has implemented a series of offline and online anti-counterfeiting measures over the years. Last year alone, the brand intercepted, blocked and removed 3 million illicit profiles from social media platforms worldwide, and approximately 94,000 counterfeit products were blocked and removed from online auction sites. The brand 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.
“The actions we implemented with great determination in recent years in the fight against counterfeiting have allowed us to achieve good results in protecting the brand,” Micaela le Divelec Lemmi, CEO of Salvatore Ferragamo, said in a statement. “The joint action with Amazon underlines how the protection of intellectual property is a priority for Ferragamo and how the company is pursuing the fight against counterfeiting with full awareness and resolution.”
On Wednesday, Amazon introduced four federal lawsuits on behalf of Dutch Blitz Acquisition Corp., a family-owned card game maker. The lawsuits, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington against four individuals and two entities, allege the six defendants used Dutch Blitz’s registered trademarks, without authorization, to deceive customers about the authenticity and origin of the products and their affiliation with Dutch Blitz.
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“We are seeing real results from Amazon’s work to eliminate counterfeit products from being sold in their store,” Mary Fisher, president of Dutch Blitz, said in a statement. “It has been incredible to work with their team on these efforts, which have had a meaningful and measurable impact on our brand.”
The lawsuits arrive eight months after the establishment of Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU). A multidisciplinary team of former federal prosecutors, investigators and data analysts, the group is dedicated to investigating cases where a bad actor has attempted to evade Amazon’s systems and listed a counterfeit in violation of its policies. Since June, Amazon has filed joint lawsuits with the Italian luxury label Valentino, cosmetics brand KF Beauty and Yeti Coolers.
On Friday, Amazon announced the CCU and the U.S. government’s National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) were expanding the joint Operation Fulfilled Action partnership to fight counterfeit Super Bowl merchandise.
As part of the partnership, Amazon said the CCU and IPR Center would share information about counterfeits in real time before, during and after the Super Bowl, including historical information about counterfeiters and real-time intelligence from on-the-ground inspections and raids. By sharing information such as physical addresses, supply routes, shippers, consignees and other potential fraud identifiers, Amazon said it and the IPR Center could more quickly and effectively stop and prevent counterfeits from reaching consumers.