Amazon May Be Liable For Fake Christian Louboutins On Site

Online retail giant Amazon may be in trouble with luxury brand Christian Louboutin.

Amazon could allegedly be held responsible for breaching the luxury shoemaker trademark rights over the sale of counterfeit red-soled high heels, which are a classic for the brand.

The European Court of Justice ruled on Thursday that Louboutin usually doesn’t advertise its iconic shoes with the retailer. However, third-party sellers on the shopping platform have been promoting the shoes. They are fake, though.

The Louboutin shoes’ red outer sole is registered in the EU and Benelux for trademarks.

EU’s top court said, “users could mistakenly think that Amazon itself is selling shoes on behalf of Louboutin, noting that it may be the case when, for instance, Amazon displays its own logo on the third-party sellers’ ads, and when it stores and ships the shoes in question.”

“These circumstances may indeed make a clear distinction difficult and give the impression to the normally informed and reasonably attentive user that it is Amazon that markets – in its own name and on its own behalf,” the court continued.

Louboutin claims the platform’s model of the shoes is “misleading the public.” The shoemaker and selling platform long-running dispute continues.

Thierry Van Innis, Louboutin’s lawyer, stated the designer’s arguments.

“Amazon can be held accountable for the breaches as if the platform was itself the seller,” Mr. Van Innis told news agency Reuters.

“Amazon will be forced to change their model and stop misleading the public by mixing up their own and third-party offers, he finished.”