Dive Brief:
- Christian Louboutin and social media giant Meta filed a joint legal complaint Thursday over the alleged sale and advertising of counterfeit goods, including fake Louboutin products, on Facebook and Instagram.
- The complaint also alleges unauthorized use of Louboutin trademarks, including its logos and red sole trademark. The red sole has been the subject of other legal actions by Louboutin, including a case against Vinci Leather earlier this year, which is ongoing.
- The joint complaint marks another instance of collaboration between fashion and tech companies over alleged counterfeit sales. Last month, a court in China found a counterfeiter guilty as a result of a collaborative investigation between the Prada Group and Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit. Amazon also joined a lawsuit with Valentino in 2020 over the selling of alleged fakes.
Dive Insight:
The Louboutin case, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that the defendant, Cesar Octavio Guerrero Alejo, operated an online business from “at least June 2020 and continuing until at least May 2023,” selling counterfeit Louboutin-branded shoes, handbags and accessories, in violation of Meta’s terms. The court documents state that Meta had previously disabled the accounts and removed posts from Alejo.
The complaint further argues that the defendant, who runs the business out of Mexico, accepted Facebook and Instagram’s terms of use, which prohibit violating the intellectual property of others, when signing up for the websites. It states the defendant violated these terms.
The defendant in the case doesn’t have an attorney listed and could not be reached for comment.
In a Thursday blog post, Jessica Romero and Mark Fiore, directors and associate general counsels for Meta, wrote that the company has implemented “robust IP protection measures” to suspend repeat infringers. Last year, Meta says it removed more than 1.7 million pieces of content from Facebook and Instagram in response to more than 180,000 counterfeit reports, per the post.
“This lawsuit is a clear signal to those who would seek to engage in similar abuses that this behavior will not be tolerated,” Romero and Fiore wrote. “Meta and Christian Louboutin plan to continue their enforcement efforts against counterfeiting and hold those who abuse our policies accountable.”
A spokesperson for Louboutin didn’t immediately respond to Fashion Dive’s request for comment.
