Salvatore Ferragamo wins counterfeit case in U.S. court

By

Dominique Muret

Published
Dec 23, 2013

Salvatore Ferragamo has won an important victory in a counterfeit case heard in the U.S. court system. In January 2013, the Italian brand filed a civil lawsuit before the Court of the Southern District of New York against 15 owners of 95 domain names who had stolen the brand's label to market fake Ferragamo products.

The U.S. court decided in the brand's favor, ordering counterfeiters to pay a fine of $4.3 million.

A prior court ruling had allowed the brand to shut down the sites. "We welcome with great satisfaction the decision of the court of New York, which understood the danger to consumers of online counterfeiting," said Ferruccio Ferragamo, chair of the Salvatore Ferragamo group.

"The Internet has now become a leading channel for traffickers of counterfeit goods, and is now the central focus of the recent lawsuits filed by our group, historically one of the most affected by this crime," he said.

Last spring the brand went on the offensive by launching lawsuits against many counterfeiters, leading to the shut down of sites like ferragamoaustralia.com, ferragamogoodshoes.com, china-ferragamo.com, ferragamosalelondon.com and others. Litigation was also initiated against the owners of these domain names, most of them located in China.

As part of its initiative, the brand displayed a message on the pretender websites, explaining that it had shut down the site in question because it was selling counterfeit goods and illegally using the name Ferragamo. It also warned against counterfeiting in general and sent a clear message that Ferragamo aggressively pursues violators and included a link back to the fashion house's official website.