'Ultimately, when there's an increase in the cost of transportation, it gets passed down to the consumer.'Īmazon has been on a spending spree to control as much of the shipping process as possible. 'The consumer has been feeling price increases in everything that they're purchasing,' said Margaret Kidd, Supply Chain & Logistics Technology program director at the University of Houston. Still, Amazon has seen a 14% rise in out-of-stock items and an average price increase of 25% since January 2021, according to e-commerce management platform CommerceIQ. So Amazon's really taken advantage of some of the niche strategies I believe that the market needs to employ,' Ferreira said. But then you're experiencing those two-week and three-weeks delay. 'Who else would think of putting something going into an obscure port in Washington, and then trucking it down to L.A.? Most people are thinking, well, just bring the ship into L.A. For the latest news, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.By chartering private cargo vessels to carry its goods, Amazon can control where its goods go, avoiding the most congested ports. Patrice Louvet Keeps Moving Ralph Lauren Higher

Moody’s Sets Outlook to Negative for Retail, Apparel The Mouse Missteps: Lessons From Disney’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Debacle Gucci and Facebook teamed last year to go after an individual for breach of contract arising out of violations of Facebook and Instagram’s terms as well as infringement of Gucci’s intellectual property rights. Social media platforms have also had the issue on their radar, spurring other high-profile tie-ups. The AAFA called on online platforms to increase oversight of counterfeit marketing. Last year, the American Apparel & Footwear Association flagged growing concerns about “dupe” influencers operating across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and others. The one-two approach with a seemingly legitimate look for sale and marketing that makes clear the goods are counterfeit has been in the crosshairs of fashion for a few years. The Phym9圓v Instagram account has since been deactivated. Those links, in turn, took customers to offer listing pages in the Amazon Store and other websites that displayed seemingly non-infringing, non-branded products available for purchase.”īut when orders were placed, the goods that arrived were “counterfeit jewelry bearing unauthorized Cartier trademarks - just as the social media defendant had advertised.” Specifically, an individual operating with the handle ‘Phym9圓v’…used her social media accounts to direct followers to links for Cartier products - e.g., ‘a Love bracelet’ - among other products.

The defendants were based in China and included an individual doing business as Phym9圓v, a business operating under the name Amazing Jewelry You Want and other similarly obscure entities.Īmazon and Cartier allege in the suit against Phym9圓v and others that: “Defendants engaged in a sophisticated campaign to market, advertise and sell counterfeit Cartier products in the Amazon Store, while disguising the products as non-branded in an attempt to evade Amazon’s counterfeit detection tools. The suits were filed Wednesday in Seattle federal court, listing both Amazon and Cartier International as plaintiffs.

courts can be hard to collect on, the collaborative effort is at least a show of collective force against a continuing problem in fashion.Īmazon said it invested more than $900 million last year with more than 12,000 people dedicated to “protecting customers, brands, selling partners and the store from counterfeit, fraud and other forms of abuse.” While it can be hard to track down bad actors a world away and big awards in U.S. That suit ended the following year and Amazon has migrated toward a collaborative approach and is increasingly looking to team with brands.Īmazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit has worked with Valentino, Salvatore Ferragamo, Hanes, Yeti, GoPro and others to chase counterfeits in court. The luxury giant sued Amazon in 2004 alleging that the company knowingly profited from selling knockoffs of its watches. Fashion has long been wary of the giant e-commerce marketplace and mindful of counterfeit products sold online.Ĭartier, in fact, has been in court with Amazon before, but as adversaries.

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