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Look well before you buy that luxury bag emblazoned with the letters L and V at a discounted price from an online portal - it may well be fake.
Global luxury retailer Louis Vuitton and writing instruments major Mont Blanc have approached the Delhi High Court to restrain Chandigarh-based ecommerce firm Digaaz from selling their products.
The two filed a suit through law firm Anand and Anand last month.
In its order, the Court took cognizance of the numerous consumer complaints and allegations of fraud against the Website and granted an ex-parte ad-interim injunction in favour of Mont Blanc and Louis Vuitton. It also restrained Digaaz from dealing in counterfeit products bearing the two firms’ names.
An e-mail sent to Digaaz remained unanswered.
The Delhi High Court also directed the registrar of the domain name digaaz.com and the internet service provider providing hosting services to the Website to suspend the domain name and the Website, respectively, till the next date of hearing in the matter.
Several other brands such as Hermes, Cartier and Gucci have also earlier resorted to legal recourse to protect their brands from cheap lookalikes.
According to an Assocham, the fake luxury goods market in India is growing at a 40-45 per cent rate annually and is likely to more than double to ₹5,600 crore from about ₹2,500 crore at present.
The industry body noted that web shopping portals account for over 25 per cent of the fake luxury goods market in India.
Handbags, watches, sunglasses, perfumes and cosmetics are the most imitated products and come largely from China.
Assocham points out that there is an urgent need to educate customers on brand heritage and create awareness about original products.
Globally, the fake luxury products market is about 7 per cent of the overall luxury market. It has an estimated value of over $22 billion against the the $320-billion global luxury industry.
In India, fake luxury goods account for about 5 per cent of the overall luxury market, according to a 2013 Assocham-YES Bank study.
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