Amazon, Cartier sue influencer accused of selling fakes

Amazon has teamed up with fashion brand Cartier on a pair of lawsuits against an unnamed social media influencer who is accused of using their platform to sell counterfeit Cartier jewellery.

The lawsuits also cite eight businesses that are accused of using social media platforms and websites to promote and sell counterfeit items – including bracelets, necklaces and earrings that infringed Cartier trademarks – on Amazon.com.

"Together, 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," says one of the complaints.

It says the social media influencer – identified only as 'Phym9y3v' – "used her social media accounts to direct followers to links for Cartier products—e.g., 'a Love bracelet' – among other products." Genuine Love bracelets (pictured above) retail for several thousand dollars apiece.

A key feature of the alleged activity was a so-called "order this/get this" ploy. The social media or website listing will link to an ostensibly generic, unbranded products – making them hard to detect. However, tipped off purchasers would be aware that they would in fact receive a counterfeit.

A similar strategy was used by social media influencers Kelly Fitzpatrick and Sabrina Kelly-Krejci, who settled a lawsuit brought by Amazon last year. The landing page on Instagram used by Phym9y3v can be seen below:

Amazon maintains that it is taking the fight to counterfeiters on its platform, claiming in its latest brand protection report that it intercepted three million counterfeit products in 2021 – up 50 per cent on the prior year – and blocked more than 2.5 million attempts to create new selling accounts.

The online retail giant needs to show it is having an impact on counterfeits, particularly as it continues an effort to break into the luxury market. Earlier this year, Amazon launched its Luxury Stores site in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, having opened a US version in 2020.