Diesel fighting against counterfeiting to affirm its position as a premium brand

By

Olivier Guyot

Published
May 26, 2015

Since the arrival of Nicola Formichetti as Diesel's creative director, the Italian brand has been ardently defending its position as a premium brand. Part of this process has been a focus on the "Reboot" programme. An approach that hasn't exactly been easy given the significant revenue generated in the past by traditional multibrand denim retailers.

The brand, under the guidance of its CEO, Alessandro Bogliolo, explained that it has made some major changes in its wholesale distribution in a move to affirm its desire to move its positioning to a higher end. It has thus closed several accounts, cutting off 85 million euros in revenue. "We didn't hesitate in making such a radical decision for a single second," asserted the CEO. "After 37 years of success, Diesel needs to detox to become stronger and stimulate organic growth in the direction identified by this new path."

In this spirit, the brand explains that at the same time it has taken on a fight against the problem of counterfeits, creating a platform bringing together all the expertise on this topic to better handle the issue at the global level. Its approaches and collaboration with the administrative and customs services of various countries seem to be bearing their fruit. 

Diesel highlighted that it has finally won its 23-year legal battle to have its rights for the brand recognised in Indonesia.

In New York, it took legal action with the United States Court of Appeals against 83 sites that were selling counterfeit products and using the Diesel name in their domain. It also specified that it managed to have 3,346 stores closed, sent 4,000 cease and desist letters, and eradicated 19,000 sites from Google. It estimates that it prevented 700,000 visits to these sites via its actions.

In Europe, the brand announced that in Portugal authorities had 290,000 counterfeit underwear items withdrawn from the market.

It also specified that customs are seizing an increasing number of counterfeits arriving from China: 60,000 in 2013 and 75,000 in 2014.