Le Monde | • Updated | By
Nothing goes between major luxury brands Kering (Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta …) and the main Chinese online commerce site Alibaba . The former have filed suit in the US against the second, they accuse facilitate the sale of counterfeits.
In their 142-page dossier filed Friday May 15 in federal court in Manhattan, the marks of the French group and their US subsidiaries filed for damages and an injunction against Alibaba for infringement of the trademark law.
A first complaint was filed by Kering during the summer of 2014 on the same grounds against Alibaba. She was eventually withdrawn to allow both parties to discuss and try to find an amicable solution. Nothing leading the discussion and “having produced no significant results,” as the spokesman Kering, “the complaint was again filed” .
In its new approach, the Alibaba Group accuses of having organized an “ecosystem” to allow full, facilitate and encourage the sale and supply of counterfeit products, both on Alibaba, as other . platforms associated with it, or AliExpress Taobao
eloquent false
List The litany of false sales is telling: a fake Gucci bag is proposed to $ 2 (€ 1.75) the unit while the price of the real bag, shop, amounts to 795 dollars. Ditto for watches of the same brand, sold from 10 to 80 dollars, against 960 in store. Or those sneakers sold like hotcakes at $ 40 instead of 500. branded T-shirts Yves Saint Laurent shipped to customers for 14.99 dollars …
In addition, if a user is looking for a counterfeit object, it is returned immediately to a site that will offer him fake branded products. Kering also accused Alibaba marketing keywords to counterfeiters, such as “synthetic leather” or “Cucchi” or “Guchi”
Kering lawyers, the firm Gibson, Dunn & amp. Crutcher, have identified more than 2,000 shops that sell counterfeit Gucci products on Taobao. Nothing that between 22 March 2013 and 22 April 2013, they claim that 37,000 fake Gucci bags were sold. This represents a huge shortfall for Kering.
The United States withdrew Taobao their list of the most suspect sites in 2012, saying the site had made progress in this area. Clearly there is some way to go. In turn the direction of Alibaba rejected, Monday, May 18, accusations of Kering, regretting that the group has preferred the courts rather than the “constructive cooperation” .
In the sights of the authorities chnioises
China is known to manufacture and market counterfeit goods: the authorities have seized 9,000 tons and arrested 59,000 people in 2013 , according to the Ministry of Public Security.
In China itself, Alibaba has been publicly questioned in late January in a report by the State Administration of Commerce and the Chinese industry (SAIC, State Administration of Commerce and Industry) for the proliferation of fake, non-licensed vendors and illegal practices on its platforms sale, mainly Taobao and T-mall.
“The illegal trading activities take place on Alibaba sales platforms, and the company avoids long time to pay attention and take action to end the “, the report said the Chinese administration, which prevents Alibaba faces “his biggest credibility crisis since its foundation. “
Read also: Alibaba accused of favoring” illegal practices “in China
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