Amazon, Valentino partner for counterfeit lawsuit
Lawsuit accuses New York company of ripping off designer shoes
Amazon and Italian fashion brand Maison Valentino are suing a New York-based company they accused of counterfeiting goods.
The companies said Kaitlyn Pan Group counterfeited the designer’s “iconic” Valentino Garavani Rockstud shoes and sold them on Amazon.com in violation of Amazon’s policies.
Valentino Garavani Rockstud shoes (Maison Valentino)
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Amazon shut down the Kaitlyn Pan seller account in September 2019, but the company continued to sell the phony goods on its own website and infringe on Valentino’s intellectual property despite several “cease and desist” orders, according to the complaint.
A representative from Kaitlyn Pan didn’t immediately respond to questions from FOX Business.
Amazon has faced criticism over fake goods hawked by third-party sellers on its platform. But the Seattle-based online retailer said it has a history of collaborating with brands to stop counterfeiters. Earlier this month, 3M said it had worked with Amazon when filing lawsuits against 14 companies it accused of counterfeiting its N95 masks amid a surge in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
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Amazon “strictly prohibits” the sale of counterfeit products on its site. Last year, Amazon said it spent more than $500 million and had more than 8,000 employees protecting its platform against fraud and abuse, including counterfeiting.
The company said “99.9 percent of products viewed by customers on Amazon” are not counterfeit.
“The vast majority of sellers in our store are honest entrepreneurs but we do not hesitate to take aggressive action to protect customers, brands and our store from counterfeiters,” Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of customer trust and partner support, said in a statement.
Valentino Garavani Rockstud shoes (Maison Valentino)
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Any proceeds won in the lawsuit will go to Valentino, according to Amazon.
The fashion brand said it has been working with U.S. customs authorities to seize more than 2,000 counterfeit products in the past three years. Valentino has already taken legal action against several companies it said have ripped off its designs and gotten more than 7,000 phony listings removed from hundreds of retail websites and more than 1,000 social media accounts.
