Dive Brief:
- Nike is calling for a partial summary judgment in its yearslong lawsuit against resale marketplace StockX, according to court documents filed last week.
- The athleticwear giant is accusing StockX of using insidious false advertising, including StockX slogans such as “100% Authentic” and “Always Authentic. Never Fake,” after discovering counterfeit Nike products on the platform.
- StockX said Nike’s claims were misguided and that it stands behind its verification process, according to a Nov. 15 press release.
Dive Insight:
The lawsuit, which was first filed in February 2022, initially focused on non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Nike accused StockX of using Nike trademarks in marketing NFTs without authorization.
A few months later, Nike added counterfeiting and false advertising claims to the lawsuit. Nike said it obtained four pairs of counterfeit shoes on the StockX platform that were marketed as having a “100% Authentic” guarantee, according to sister publication Retail Dive.
In filings released last week and initially filed under seal in August, Nike said it had identified at least 77 pairs of counterfeit Nike shoes during the litigation, with more than three dozen counterfeits being sold to a single customer.
Because of this, attorneys for Nike argue that there is “no genuine dispute that StockX’s false Authenticity Claims are the cause of ‘actual or likely injury’ to Nike.”
But in StockX’s press release, the company said the products mentioned in the complaint amounted to “0.0004% of 17.8 million Nike sneakers StockX reviewed while this litigation was ongoing.”
In StockX’s most recent verification report, the company said it rejected more than 400,000 products from appearing on its platform for not meeting its verification requirements. The company also said in the report that apparel and footwear products were the most susceptible to counterfeits.
“StockX has long done our part to prevent bad actors from trading on our platform, but we can’t do it alone,” the company said in its release. “It’s a shame that rather than work with us to fight fakes, Nike has opted to use its resources to pursue meritless, expensive litigation and persecute a company that has long worked to fight the prevalence of counterfeits.”
Nike was the no. 1 traded sneaker brand on StockX’s marketplace in 2023. Several Nike styles, including the Nike P-6000, the Air Force 1 Low Cactus Plant Flea Market Fuchsia collab, and its collaboration with NOCTA were popular in StockX’s latest quarterly trend report.
In the background, StockX is undergoing several corporate changes.
StockX recently announced that its cofounder and COO Greg Schwartz would become its CEO beginning on New Year’s Day.
On Wednesday, StockX announced that it was launching a new returns policy in the U.S., which offers customers a 14-day return period and a full refund in the form of StockX credit.
Meanwhile, combating counterfeit products in the courts isn’t new for Nike.
Nike and its sister brand Converse sued a group of 52 “counterfeiting networks” in June over the sale of counterfeit products.
The athleticwear company has also undergone a series of executive changes in the past few months. In September, Elliott Hill came out of retirement to become the new CEO, after former CEO John Donahoe left the business. Nike later announced Tom Peddie as the general manager of the North America geography for the company.
