Premier Brands Group faces legal dispute from Levi’s over ‘counterfeit trafficking’

Denim brand Levi Strauss & Co. has filed a legal complaint against Premier Brands Group (PBG) in which it claims the New York-based firm had carried out a “large-scale counterfeit trafficking operation” that infringed on its trademarks.

In a filing with the California Northern District Court (case number 3:25-cv-03863), seen and initially reported on by the San Francisco Chronicle, it is alleged that PBG, its CEO Alan Chartash and several other defendants had knowingly bought and sold over 90,000 counterfeit ‘Levi’s’ branded products, “with no reasonable basis to believe that such products might be genuine”.

According to Levi’s, the said products “were of exceeding low quality” and some came with “obvious errors”, such as wrongly spelled wording, allegedly proving PBG knew about the scheme. This, in turn, is said to have negatively affected Levi’s brand image among consumers, the filing claims, and has resulted in the loss of “millions of dollars” for the US label.

Levi’s is also claiming that the defendants had forged letters they said had come from the denim brand authenticating the “counterfeited” goods and authorised their sale, helping PBG to carry out the trafficking scheme. Levi’s noted that no agreement as stated in the apparently “forged” letters had taken place and added that it had no partnership with PBG to this extent.

Levi’s is seeking monetary damages and a preliminary and permanent injunction to prohibit PBG from “further acts of counterfeiting”. The brand has also called for the firm to destroy any and all products that "counterfeit or otherwise infringe or dilute the Ls&Co. trademarks”.

FashionUnited has contacted Levi Strauss and Premier Brands Group with requests to comment.