Salvatore Ferragamo wins counterfeiting court case

Italian fashion house Salvatore Ferragamo has been awarded compensation of 60 million dollars after winning an exemplary ruling in the New York Court in its fight against counterfeiting.

The luxury label had filed a cease-and-desist petition before the New York Court against 60 illegal online profiles of 150 domain names, which were using Salvatore Ferragamo’s trademark to sell counterfeit products. The court ruled in favour of the Italian label as it found that the domains were infringing upon its brand rights and sentenced the counterfeiters to pay a 60 million dollar fine in exemplary compensation.

“We are extremely pleased with the decision of the New York court, which also comprises exemplary damages, the highest ever awarded for this type of violation,” said Ferruccio Ferragamo, chairman of the Salvatore Ferragamo Group. “The Internet is the prime channel for traffickers of counterfeit goods and it is therefore the focus of our monitoring and control efforts. In recent years, our Group has implemented a series of anti-counterfeiting measures, both on- and off-line, to protect our customers and the value of our brand.”

In 2017, these measures allowed Ferragamo to have over 35,000 items and illegal profiles removed from major social networks, as well as the interception, blocking and deletion of nearly 69,000 counterfeit products from online auctions. The group constantly monitors offline markets through different court and out-of-court activities, focusing its efforts on China. Last year, about 62,000 counterfeit products were seized in China, out of the more than 268,000 counterfeit products seized around the world.

Ferruccio Ferragamo, added: “We are very satisfied with the results of the steps we have taken to protect our registered brands and our trademark rights on the Internet. Rest assured that we will continue to fight counterfeiting with unfailing determination.”