generic Amazon, Cartier Team Up to Take On Counterfeiters
Amazon and Cartier are taking an arm-in-arm approach to so-called “dupe” influencers using social media to push counterfeiters.
The companies jointly filed two lawsuits targeting what they say were efforts to skirt Amazon’s anti-fake rules by using generic descriptions of jewelry on the e-commerce platform, but touting them as counterfeit on Instagram.
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Kebharu Smith, associate general counsel and director of the Amazon Counterfeit Crimes Unit, said: “Amazon will keep investing and innovating to stay ahead of counterfeiters, and working with brands and law enforcement to hold bad actors accountable. We don’t just want to chase them away from Amazon — we want to stop them for good.”
Fashion has long been wary of the giant e-commerce marketplace and mindful of counterfeit products sold online.
Cartier, in fact, has been in court with Amazon before, but as adversaries. The luxury giant sued Amazon in 2004 alleging that the company knowingly profited from selling knockoffs of its watches. That suit ended the following year and Amazon has migrated toward a collaborative approach and is increasingly looking to team with brands.
Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit has worked with Valentino, Salvatore Ferragamo, Hanes, Yeti, GoPro and others to chase counterfeits in court.
While it can be hard to track down bad actors a world away and big awards in U.S. courts can be hard to collect on, the collaborative effort is at least a show of collective force against a continuing problem in fashion.
Amazon said it invested more than $900 million last year with more than 12,000 people dedicated to “protecting customers, brands, selling partners and the store from counterfeit, fraud and other forms of abuse.”
The suits were filed Wednesday in Seattle federal court, listing both Amazon and Cartier International as plaintiffs. The defendants were based in China and included an individual doing business as Phym9y3v, a business operating under the name Amazing Jewelry You Want and other similarly obscure entities.
Amazon and Cartier allege in the suit against Phym9y3v and others that: “Defendants engaged in a sophisticated campaign to market, advertise and sell counterfeit Cartier products in the Amazon Store, while disguising the products as non-branded in an attempt to evade Amazon’s counterfeit detection tools. Specifically, an individual operating with the handle ‘Phym9y3v’…used her social media accounts to direct followers to links for Cartier products — e.g., ‘a Love bracelet’ — among other products. Those links, in turn, took customers to offer listing pages in the Amazon Store and other websites that displayed seemingly non-infringing, non-branded products available for purchase.”
But when orders were placed, the goods that arrived were “counterfeit jewelry bearing unauthorized Cartier trademarks — just as the social media defendant had advertised.”
The Phym9y3v Instagram account has since been deactivated.
The one-two approach with a seemingly legitimate look for sale and marketing that makes clear the goods are counterfeit has been in the crosshairs of fashion for a few years.
Last year, the American Apparel & Footwear Association flagged growing concerns about “dupe” influencers operating across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and others.
The AAFA called on online platforms to increase oversight of counterfeit marketing.
Social media platforms have also had the issue on their radar, spurring other high-profile tie-ups.
Gucci and Facebook teamed last year to go after an individual for breach of contract arising out of violations of Facebook and Instagram’s terms as well as infringement of Gucci’s intellectual property rights.
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