Gucci is not playing with the fraudsters anymore! The luxury designer brand has sued over three dozen websites accused of selling knock-off shoes, clothes and accessories while appropriating the brand name.
According to the brand’s complaint, the websites siphon customer traffic from Gucci and essentially operate within a black market network for fake designer products. Gucci said in the suit that it spends “significant monetary resources” to ward off counterfeiters, and have asked for millions in statutory damages: $2 million for each counterfeit item the web sites sold.
“The exponential growth of counterfeiting over the Internet has created an environment that requires companies, such as Gucci, to file a large number of lawsuits, often it later turns out, against the same individuals and groups, in order to protect both consumers and itself from the ill effects of confusion and the erosion of the goodwill associated with the Gucci brand,” the company said in the suit.
The websites named in the suit are registered in the U.S. and overseas, and run by unknown businesses, according to the complaint. Gucci, which sued the defendants for various trademark violations under the Lanham Act, also sought a restraining order and injunctions to block the companies from selling alleged counterfeit Gucci products.
“If defendants’ counterfeiting and infringing, cybersquatting and unfairly competitive activities, and their illegal marketplace enterprise, are not preliminarily and permanently enjoined by this court, Gucci and the consuming public will continue to be harmed,” Gucci said in the suit.
