Chinese authorities seized hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of counterfeit clothing and accessories in Zheijang province, following a global investigation involving Italy’s Salvatore Ferragamo and Amazon.
Chinese officials raided a warehouse, seizing hundreds of fake Ferragamo’s iconic Gancini belt and buckles after a producer’s attempt to sell them on Amazon as originals, the two companies said in a joint statement.
The belt is one of Ferragamo’s most known accessories – its link-shaped buckle used by the brand as a logo for many other products – and sells for more than 300 euros ($320).
In February 2021 Amazon and Ferragamo jointly filed two lawsuits in the US against manufacturers who had allegedly used Ferragamo’s registered trademarks to deceive customers over the authenticity of the products.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has estimated the global trade in counterfeit products was as much as $464 billion in 2019 and said a boom in e-commerce in 2020-21 led to massive growth in the supply of online counterfeit goods.
In broader efforts against counterfeiting, last year Ferragamo removed more than 22,000 products and profiles on social media platforms and over 130,000 product listings on online shops.
Amazon does not allow fake to be sold on its website and in 2020 invested more than $700 millions in anti-counterfeiting measures. It has also set up a unit that collaborates with authorities.
- Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell
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