Gucci, Facebook file joint lawsuit against alleged counterfeiter

GucciandFacebookhavefiled ajointlawsuitin Californiaagainstan individual, whoallegedly used the USgroup's social media platforms to sell fakeGucciproducts, the two companies said on Tuesday.

The initiative, a first of its kind for bothGucciandFacebook, is the latest example of an Internet giant joining forces with a luxury label to fight the proliferation of counterfeit goods being sold via social media.

Amazon hasfiled similarlawsuits over the past year with Valentino and Ferragamo.

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In a statement,Gucci- the profit engine of French group Kering - andFacebookallegedthe unidentified defendant used multipleFacebookand Instagram accounts to promote her international online counterfeit business.

Online sales of luxury handbags, shoes and garments have boomed over the past year as the coronavirus pandemic forced retailers to temporarily close their stores.

Groups likeFacebookare 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 fromFacebookand Instagram in the first half of 2020, based on thousands of reports of counterfeit content from brand owners, includingGucci," the statement said.

It added that in 2020 alone the actions ofGucci's in-house intellectual property team had resulted in four million on-line counterfeit product listings being taken down, the seizure of 4,100,000 counterfeit products, and 45,000 websites, including social media accounts, being disabled.