China really is picking up on this whole consumer culture thing.

A scandal came to a head late last week as the head of Shanghai-based luxury furniture brand DaVinci melted down at a press conference in which she said allegations that it deals in counterfeit furniture — sold as "made in Italy" but in fact made in China — were false.

As the New York Times explains, "DaVinci furniture stores have been places where wealthy Chinese in (Shanghai) and five other big cities can indulge their appetite for imported luxury. Promoting itself as 'a haven for premium products,' DaVinci is the place to go for Versace sofas, sumptuous Fendi Casa calf-skin couches or stylish chaise lounges stamped Made in Italy. A DaVinci bedroom set can sell for $100,000."

The scandal exemplifies how fragile the brand relationship is in China and how Chinese consumers are increasingly upset about counterfeiting.Continue reading...

As the world's largest online marketplace, eBay has to constantly defend its brand against vendors selling knock-off branded goods on its site.

To make clear its commitment to thwarting counterfeiters, eBay has partnered with the US Council of Fashion Designers of America on "You Can't Fake Fashion," a campaign to raise awareness against counterfeit goods and celebrate original design.Continue reading...

We've reported extensively on the impact of counterfeit goods on brands around the world, but it seems that the latest place to acquire knock-offs of red-hot brands might be very close to home. It's your local flea market.

Local markets have become ever more popular because they offer recession-strapped consumers a wide variety of merchandise at discounted prices. While outdoor bazaars hawking secondhand goods may seem like small fry in the global war on knock-off luxury, designer and other branded goods, in recent years they have become a prime focus for vendors peddling brand name merchandise — particularly when the merchandise is fake.Continue reading...

The US Supreme Court today threw out Tiffany's counterfeit case against eBay, which is so rife with Tiffany knock-offs that one fan produced an eight-minute tour (above) of faux Tiffany items, and posted the video in a a warning to others on YouTube.

The New York-based luxury brand had filed an appeal with the court, seeking to overturn lower court decisions that eBay was not liable for trademark infringement by allowing fake Tiffany goods to be sold on the website by individuals.

A victorious eBay, for its part, had argued that deleting counterfeit items uploaded by sellers was sufficient. The case has been widely viewed as a major legal challenge to Internet companies such as eBay, Google and others enabling the sale of counterfeit goods online.

While Tiffany's online security team will still be kept hopping by the estimated 75% of fake Tiffany ware on eBay, the brand is pinning its hopes on another suit.Continue reading...

While much of the blame falls on China for producing and selling counterfeit goods, it's rampant and widespread. Despite actions taken by such luxury brands as Christian Louboutin, Louis Vuitton, and Versace, knock-offs of brand name luxury goods continue to be sold openly on street corners in major cities around the world.

Take Malaysia, for example. In Bukit Bintang, the well-known shopping district of the capital city, Kuala Lumpur, vendors at temporary stalls hawk fakes of such brands as Chanel, Burberry, and Gucci. Faux branded jackets, perfumes, wallets, watches, and other merchandise is available at a fraction of the cost of the real thing.Continue reading...

Here's something European luxury brands don't want to hear — fake designer goods may not be so bad after all.

According to a new study funded by the European Union and just published in the British Journal of Criminology, counterfeit goods have "greatly" improved in quality and seem to promote the brands they're trying to copy. The report concludes that people who buy counterfeits "would never pay for the real thing anyway."

What's more, according to David Wall, a professor at the University of Durham in England and the co-author of the report (dubbed "Jailhouse Frocks"), the real cost of counterfeit goods may be as little as one-fifth of the previously estimated losses.

"It's probably even less," he says. "There is also evidence that it actually helps the brands, by quickening the fashion cycle and raising brand awareness."Continue reading...

Brand marketers have a new piece of ammunition in their fight against counterfeiters. It turns out that wearing fake designer goods "may have hidden psychological costs," according to an article in the September issue of Scientific American magazine.

The article reports on studies conducted by three scientists from Duke University, Harvard Business School, and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, to determine if counterfeit labels affected consumers' behavior.

One study involved young women who were given Chloe sunglasses to wear. While the sunglasses were authentic, half of the women were told they were wearing fakes.

All of the women were asked to perform tasks that "presented opportunities for lying and cheating." For example, one task was to complete a set of mathematical puzzles in what researchers knew wasn't enough time. Can you guess what happened next?Continue reading...

Temperatures are rising this summer in more ways than one. It may be unbearably hot outside, but when it comes to the luxury brand market, things are positively boiling over.

Luxury brands have been beating the war drum loudly lately. With a weakened global economy eroding their profit margins, luxury brand marketers have seen their traditional upscale buyers turn away from the brands they once cherished. Instead, many of these consumers are trading down and looking for lower-priced bargains. Even worse, some are purchasing counterfeit goods.

This has led to a number of aggressive actions by the luxury brands, such as pressuring the European Commission to give a brand the authority to designate which online distributors can sell that brand's products. The Europe-wide ruling, which went into effect in June, also gives a brand the legal means to pursue e-tailers who are illegally selling the brand's goods or misrepresenting the brand's name.

Now Cartier is trying to extend that same kind of authority to the United States by going after an online retailer who sells name brand second-hand goods at a deep discount.Continue reading...