Harman issues legal notice to online retailer

Premium audio, infotainment and enterprise automation group, Harman International India Pvt Ltd has issued a legal notice to online e-commerce portal ShopClues.com for allegedly selling counterfeit JBL Lifestyle products on its website.

This development comes two months after Chinese handset-maker, Gionee, drew up a counter-attack strategy to stop online retailers including Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal from selling Gionee handsets at deeply discounted prices on their websites. “As part of our regular tracking of online sites, we noticed in September that a sizeable number of fake JBL products, including headphones and multimedia products were being sold via various vendors on ShopClues.com.

“Many of the JBL models listed on the site are not a part of our global line up; the models are being sold at very high discounts ranging between 70 and 80 per cent, which we know for sure are not possible for this brand; and many customers have approached us asking for replacements.

“One look at what they bought and we realised they are replicas of the real products,” Sharath S, Director – Lifestyle business at Harman India, told BusinessLine .

He said, JBL headphones which are priced at ₹1,000 up to ₹20,000 are being sold on ShopClues.com at ₹199, ₹250 and ₹300; similarly, a particular multimedia product which sells for ₹16,000 is being sold on ShopClues.com for ₹2,700. JBL power banks, which the company does not have, are being offered at MRP of ₹999 and sold for ₹575. Harman India had to send out a legal notice, because despite being repeatedly informed about the counterfeit JBL products being sold on ShopClues.com, the portal had not taken any action so far.

“The standard response from ShopClues is ‘we are willing to comply.’ However, within 10-30 days the same counterfeit sellers continue to sell under a different name on the site.

“Other online retailers where fake JBL products are being sold have promptly complied and worked directly with us to solve the issue,” said Sharath.

On being contacted, Radhika Ghai Aggarwal, co-founder and CMO, ShopClues.com said, “I don’t know why they have sent us a legal notice which we received late last night.

“We are probably the only online retailer that has an intellectual property protection policy where brands can report any intellectual property violation by clicking on a link on our website. We take immediate action when a violation is reported by a brand by pulling the products off our site.”

Ghai Aggarwal further added, “We also have multiple buyer protection programmes wherein we take back products within ten days if they are fake or faulty.”