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Several third-party vendors reportedly announced and facilitated the sale of counterfeit Salvatore Ferragamo products on Amazon, according to two joint actions by Amazon and the Italian luxury brand unveiled on Thursday.
The lawsuits filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington accuse four vendors and three companies of using Amazon to sell counterfeit belts that featured Ferragamo’s brand and design elements. Other unidentified defendants, dubbed “Faz 1-10”, are included in both complaints.
The four third-party vendors mentioned in the lawsuits are Zhao Hao Jun, from China; Zhang Lianfa from China; Li Yong; and Wu Pianpian. Zhao and Zhang did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Li and Wu could not be reached for comment.
The cases represent Amazon’s most recent effort to avoid selling counterfeit products in its growing third-party market. The market now accounts for more than half of Amazon’s e-commerce sales and has helped the company generate record revenue. But it has also been shown to host counterfeit, insecure and even expired goods, prompting the company to invest hundreds of millions of dollars a year to ensure that the products are safe and compatible.
Amazon has pursued counterfeiters in courts and launched several programs to search for and detect counterfeit product sales. Last June, it launched the Counterfeit Crime Unit, made up of former federal prosecutors, investigators and data analysts, to explore the site for fraudulent activity.
Counterfeit products can be particularly damaging to trusted brands that sell on Amazon because they divert business and can force companies that already survive on low margins to further lower their prices to compete. Amazon, which launched a dedicated luxury section on its website last September, has an incentive to protect its relationships with brands to ensure they continue to offer their products on the platform.
Amazon and Ferragamo filed two separate lawsuits against suspected counterfeiters, but the activities alleged in the complaints are of a similar nature. In both complaints, Amazon and Ferragamo claim to have confirmed that the items were fake by purchasing a series of them. When the items arrived, they displayed Ferragamo’s trademark. Amazon said it closed its accounts after discovering they were selling counterfeit goods.
Amazon and Italian luxury brand Salvatore Ferragamo filed two lawsuits against sellers and third-party companies, alleging that they sold counterfeit belts.
In many cases, the counterfeit product listing pages omitted “any mention of the Ferragamo word mark in the product descriptions”, probably to avoid Amazon’s counterfeit detection tools, a complaint claims.
In many cases, the counterfeit product listing pages omitted “any mention of the Ferragamo word mark in the product descriptions”, the lawsuits claim.
In addition, several defendants have taken steps to conceal their identities and location using fake names and contact information, as well as unregistered companies to operate on the platform, Amazon claims.
Many of the vendor accounts that offer the counterfeit items appeared to be connected to each other, both claims claim. They used similar tactics to ensure that their listings were not flagged by Amazon, and in some cases, counterfeit Ferragamo items from multiple vendors arrived in similar packages, were shipped from the same address, or had identical prices.
Amazon and Ferragamo are seeking unspecified damages from defendants, as well as an injunction from sellers and companies that would prevent them from selling any product on Amazon or any product using the Ferragamo brand.