Amazon, Salvatore Ferragamo Sue Alleged Counterfeiters In Joint Lawsuits

Amazon and Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A. jointly filed two lawsuits against four people and three entities for allegedly counterfeiting the latter company’s merchandise, according to a Thursday (Feb. 11) announcement.

“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,” Salvatore Ferragamo CEO Micaela Le Divelec Lemmi said in the announcement.

Ferragamo has put into place online and offline anti-counterfeiting initiatives to safeguard its clients and the value of its brand over the years. Its digital monitoring activities allowed it to intercept, block and take down three million purportedly illicit profiles from social media sites globally last year, while 94,000 allegedly counterfeit items were blocked and taken down from digital auction platforms, according to the announcement. The company has also filed actions against hundreds of websites via civil cases in New York federal court and was recently awarded $2.8 million in damages.

In addition, Ferragamo conducts many offline investigations and goes after infringers via civil litigation and out-of-court actions. Last year, 240,000 products that had the company’s allegedly counterfeit trademarks were seized globally due to joint efforts with the authorities, according to the announcement.

Amazon forbids counterfeit merchandise in its stores, and invested more than $500 million in 2019 to safeguard shoppers and brands from abuse and fraud such as counterfeiting. “We do not allow counterfeit products in our store, and we have made it crystal clear that we take aggressive action to hold accountable bad actors who attempt to evade our proactive protections,” Dharmesh Mehta, vice president of customer trust and partner support for Amazon, said in the announcement.

The news comes as Amazon announced the expansion of its Project Zero anti-counterfeit effort to seven new countries – Brazil, Australia, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Turkey, Singapore and the UAE.