As online sales for luxury goods soared during the forced closure of retail shops last year, so did the sales of counterfeit products. Italian fashion label Gucci and internet giant Facebook have combined forces counteract the increase of counterfeit goods being sold across social media channels, starting with an individual who allegedly used the Facebook’s social media platforms to sell fake Gucci products.
Reuters reports that:
In a statement, Gucci and Facebook alleged the unidentified defendant used multiple Facebook and Instagram accounts to promote her international online counterfeit business.
Groups like Facebook are keen to make a bigger push into the luxury market and “social commerce”, but to do so they need to show that their platforms are not a conduit for counterfeiting and are safe for brands, some of which are reluctant to sell their products through third-party players.
“More than one million pieces of content were removed from Facebook and Instagram in the first half of 2020, based on thousands of reports of counterfeit content from brand owners, including Gucci,” the statement said.
It added that in 2020 alone the actions of Gucci’s in-house intellectual property team had resulted in four million on-line counterfeit product listings being taken down, the seizure of 4.1 million counterfeit products, and 45,000 websites, including social media accounts, being disabled.
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