Fighting Replica Louis Vuitton Sales to Protect Creation

The fight against replica Louis Vuitton sales is a long-term element in Louis Vuitton’s worldwide sustainability strategy. Louis Vuitton believes that it is essential to preserve the house’s ancestral know-how and the work of its craftsmen by fighting the illegal networks that infringe on human rights, the environment and the global economy.

Louis Vuitton has been confronted with replica Louis Vuitton sales since the earliest days of its success. The highly distinctive Monogram canvas was created in 1896 by Georges Vuitton in memory of his father, Louis Vuitton, the company’s founder, in an effort to deter counterfeiters attracted by the brand’s success, the attractiveness of its products and its world-class status.

As the premier global luxury brand, Louis Vuitton continues to be a primary target of counterfeiters around the world today. Replica Louis Vuitton sellers are stealing the craftsmanship of the artisans responsible for their success and pillaging the investments made to develop the brand.

The sale of counterfeit goods is a serious offense whose revenue funds criminal organisations at the expense of consumers, companies and governments. It calls for the responsible behaviour of all economic actors, in particular consumers notably on the Internet, now a favoured platform for counterfeit sellers.

Only by fighting replica Louis Vuitton sales together can significant progress be made. Louis Vuitton has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to replica Louis Vuitton sales.

Louis Vuitton’s Intellectual Property Department (which oversees the entire LVMH Fashion and Leather Goods branch) was created twenty years ago to manage strategic assets including trademarks, designs and copyrights. Today, it employs a fully-dedicated team with multicultural yet complementary profiles such as lawyers and former law enforcement agents.

With the support of 250 trademark agents around the world, almost 11,500 rights are registered, defended and managed. Hundreds of contracts are also implemented every year to protect various creative projects.

Thanks to coordinators based in Paris with regional offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Milan, Dubai, New York and Buenos Aires, thousands of anti-replica Louis Vuitton sales raids are performed each year. In 2009, Louis Vuitton initiated 9,489 raids (39 per day) and 26,843 anti-replica Louis Vuitton sales procedures worldwide, resulting in the seizure of thousands of counterfeit products and the breaking up of criminal networks.

Last but not least, the Internet division of the Intellectual Property Department registers domain names, fights cybersquatting and tracks replica Louis Vuitton sales online by monitoring the net, in particular search engines, directories and auction platforms. More than 430 litigious websites were shut down in 2009.

This centralized and hands-on approach towards the replica Louis Vuitton sales market contributes to the success of Louis Vuitton’s efforts to protect the brand.

Pioneering the use of the contributory liability principle to fight replica Louis Vuitton sales, in 2003 Louis Vuitton successfully initiated a program targeting “intermediaries” whose services are used by underground counterfeit networks, such as landlords, payment facilities and carrier companies. This program has been very effective in preventing the sale of Louis Vuitton counterfeits in certain replica Louis Vuitton hotspots like New York’s Canal Street.

The fight against replica Louis Vuitton sales is a long-term battle but Louis Vuitton is more determined than ever to protect and preserve the value of the brand in the interest of its clients.

Louis Vuitton guarantees authenticity by means of an exclusive distribution network; Louis Vuitton products are only sold in Louis Vuitton stores and through the website www.louisvuitton.com.

Recent developments

On March 20, 2009, the Guardia di Finanza seized nearly 140,000 counterfeit Louis Vuitton scarves and 12,000 meters of fake fabric in a shop in Milan (Italy).
On April 23, 2009 an intervention in cooperation with local authorities targeted 4 factories and 3 warehouses in Gyeonggi Province, Korea and allowed for the seizure of around 900,000 counterfeit spare parts and the arrest of 5 people.
In May 2009, the customs authorities of the port of Piraeus (Athens) seized over 49,000 Louis Vuitton counterfeits from containers arriving from China and Malaysia.
On June 3, 2009, almost 40,000 Louis Vuitton counterfeits were seized with the help of local authorities in Guangzhou (China) from two trucks headed towards the port of Ningbo.
On August 6, 2009, 16 machine tools used to make replica Louis Vuitton and 350m of counterfeit canvas and seized from an illegal workshop in Asunción, Paraguay were destroyed.
On August 28, 2009, the Northern District of California jury in San José, capital of California’s Silicon Valley, awarded Louis Vuitton M$ 32.4 M in damages in a civil action filed against the companies Akanoc, Inc. and Managed Solutions Group, Inc. which had hosted over 200 Chinese websites selling counterfeit goods.
In September 16, 2009, over 1.300 litigious CDs and DVDs bearing the LV Logo and imitating the Damier canvas were destroyed in Ho Chi Min City (Vietnam).
On October 6, 2009, police seized 31,785 replica Louis Vuitton leather goods in Kyungki-Do (Philippines). The owner of the workshop and warehouse raided had been using sophisticated machinery and the help of professional technicians to manufacture thousands of Louis Vuitton imitations for the Korean, Japanese and Chinese counterfeit markets.
On October 20, 2009, arrest warrants were issued against the two owners of the website yeslouisvuitton.com following the seizure of 200 Louis Vuitton counterfeits by police in Guangzhou (China). This infringing website was hosted by Managed Solutions Group, one of the two companies sentenced by a jury verdict in California in August 2009.
On October 30, 2009, 9,271 Louis Vuitton bags and 500m2 of counterfeit LV fabric were seized by the Guardia di Finanza from three workshops in Florence (Italy). In a parallel raid in Prato, local authorities seized 20,000m2 of replica Louis Vuitton fabric. These operations generated media attention due to the unhealthy conditions of these workshops where around twenty clandestine Chinese immigrants and their families lived and worked, including toddlers aged between 3 and 5.
On December 4, 2009, Yahoo! Japan and Louis Vuitton signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) establishing guidelines for their close cooperation in the fight against online replica Louis Vuitton sales on Yahoo! Auction.