The victory is discreet, but to mark a white stone for LVMH. On November 18, the group sentenced owners of the Saint-Ouen fleas, reports Challenges magazine.
Read also: LVMH continues to break records
The court recognized the responsibility of the owners of the walls in the sale of counterfeit products by their tenants in this place known for this practice. Result: the owners of ten shops must now " prohibit their tenants from selling counterfeit products under penalty of a penalty of 1000 euros ".
Arrests and seizures are struggling to stifle the counterfeit market in Saint-Ouen. Again last December, the police carried out a massive seizure from a merchant: 2,341 counterfeit products were thus withdrawn. Assessment of damage: 228,450 euros. In total, in 2018, the flea brigade seized the equivalent of 2.6 million euros of counterfeit clothing. The damage very often affects luxury brands like LVMH.
The firm does not intend to stop at this judicial victory, even considering attacking Amazon, according to Challenges . Contacted by Le Figaro , LVMH did not confirm this information.
Read also: The very pretty gem of the big French luxury brands
On January 28, the CEO of the luxury group, Bernard Arnault, attacked the e-commerce firm during its presentation of annual results: " They use their database to connect customers to sellers and they take a commission in passing. Which brings them, and there we will try to fight that, to sell counterfeit products. And therefore in a way to be associated with organized crime. Because these sites that sell counterfeit products are funded by organized crime, even by terrorism, "he denounced.
LVMH fights counterfeiting, and gives itself the means: each year, the group spends 40 million euros in this fight. On the Internet, he manages to have nearly 700,000 ads deleted per year. In 2019, the group received a prize awarded by the Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group (GACG) for all the actions carried out.
A permanent fight against counterfeiting
More generally, counterfeiting represents between 5 and 10% of total world trade, reports Unifab (Union of Manufacturers) and therefore weighs between 600 and 1000 billion euros, according to international organizations.
Also read: Hélène Valade, an expert in sustainable development at LVMH
Trafficking in counterfeits is far from posing a simple commercial problem; it is of close interest to the authorities. Homeland Security, the American equivalent of the Interior Ministry, presented a report on this trade on January 24 to President Trump. The text is alarmist: this trafficking would largely contribute to the financing of organized crime. It is, after the drug trade, the second most important criminal activity in fueling terrorism.
Homeland Security also highlights the role of e-commerce platforms in the circulation of counterfeit products, thus joining Bernard Arnault in his fight.
