MIAMI –– A luxury retailer accuses dozens of websites of selling counterfeit goods over the internet.
Louis Vuitton filed a complaint on Oct. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against the defendants, alleging they violated the retailer's trademarks.
Louis Vuitton is a French company that does business in the United States. The websites are registered by domain registrar GoDaddy and the defendants operate in the United States and China.
“Defendants’ concurrent counterfeiting and infringing activities are likely to cause and actually are causing confusion, mistake and deception among members of the trade and the general consuming public as to the origin and quality of defendants’ counterfeit goods,” the complaint states. "Defendants, through the advertising, offering for sale, and sale of counterfeit and infringing Louis Vuitton branded products, are directly, and unfairly, competing with Louis Vuitton’s economic interests in the state of Florida and causing Louis Vuitton harm within this jurisdiction."
Louis Vuitton has become synonymous with high-quality goods, according to the lawsuit, something the company says the defendants are trying to destroy.
The company also alleged that the defendants bought specific domain names with the intention of defrauding Louis Vuitton.
They have asked for a temporary restraining order to prevent the defendants from manufacturing or selling the goods. The company has also requested the courts put the domain names on hold and to assign all rights to the websites to Louis Vuitton.
Search engines are also to be asked to de-list the domain names in question.
They also request statutory damages of $2 million from each defendant for each trademark infringement and product sold.