Chanel Accused The Second-Hand Platform Of Selling Fake Products And Said That Experts Were Not Credible.

According to the women's wear daily, France's luxury brand Chanel has made new progress in prosecuting online luxury goods retailers such as the Real Real, counterfeiting and infringement.

Chanel put forward the latest argument in the New York district court last Wednesday: Although the Real Real told consumers in the advertisement that the goods sold to the consumer platform were "one hundred percent genuine goods", Chanel's testimony in the testimony showed that the identification of the so-called authenticators is more like a "viewpoint".

Chanel said that the brand had found at least seven fake packages sold by the Real Real; Chanel thought that this just reflected the so-called "fake expert" of the second-hand business which is "not credible".

In response, the Real Real once again said "no hesitation in refusing" the accusation.

Last November, Chanel sent the Real Real to court to accuse the second-hand luxury goods supplier of trademark infringement, fraud, false advertising and unfair competition.

Chanel's main complaint is that the Real Real sells fake Chanel packages on the platform, and misleads consumers to believe that the company belongs to Chanel.

Chanel said in its accusation that the company found that the serial number on the Chanel bag on the website sold by the Real Real does not match the real Chanel bag, and these serial numbers are the key to distinguish genuine and fake Chanel bags.

But the Real Real argues that the company has been hiring "fake experts" to ensure that the second-hand goods sold are "one hundred percent genuine".

However, Chanel denied that the qualification of the fake experts was that they could not distinguish between genuine and fake Chanel bags.

"Only Chanel insiders have been trained to identify the authenticity of their products and learn related knowledge," Chanel has shown before. "If a retail store lets consumers believe that its so-called experts can identify genuine Chanel brand products, it is cheating consumers.

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But the Real Real denied that their "fake experts" were not qualified, and they thought they knew how to distinguish true from false from the leather quality to the zipper manufacturer.

Chanel also accused the Real Real of misleading consumers in social media, believing that the second-hand platform belonged to Chanel.

In response, the Real Real spokeswoman Christine Heerwagen said in a statement last Thursday, "Chanel filed a lawsuit only in a shocking and brutal way to prevent consumers from reselling Chanel genuine goods, while preventing customers from buying these second-hand goods at discounted prices".

The Real Real thinks Chanel's complaint is nothing more than to clean up competitors in the two tier market.

So this March, the second-hand retailer asked the court to remove the lawsuit.

For now, Chanel has no interest in online luxury luxury retailers.

Last March, Chanel went to court on the same grounds - fraud, trademark infringement, false advertising, unfair competition - What Goes Around Comes Around (WGACA), an ancient luxury retailer.

WGACA operates a second-hand commodity e-commerce website and five retail stores, scattered in New York, Manhattan, Losangeles, Miami and Hampton.

The brand also has dealings with several retailers.

Before the Real Real, this was the first lawsuit between luxury brands and second-hand stores.

Similarly, Chanel showed that the two so-called Chanel handbags and fiber box covers sold on the Internet by WGACA were identified as fakes.

WGACA subsequently denied the accusation.

"When we collect second-hand luxury goods, we have been very careful to ensure authenticity." the two founders of WGACA, Weisser and Maione, told the women's Wear Daily that "our team has 25 years of experience in identifying and training genuine goods, and we only sell products that we have inspected thoroughly."

Chanel also accuses WGACA of misleading consumers, believing that the company is associated with Chanel.

WGACA also denied this and pointed out that "Chanel's accusations in turn prove that they want to control the aftermarket of their products".

However, if you go to WGACA's website and store, you will see a lot of retro second-hand Chanel products on sale, and the company often uses Chanel's logo and advertising pictures to publicize its social media accounts.

The company has been selling second-hand luxury goods for 25 years, and has a reputation in the circle of retro second-hand shops. It has always been "the world's largest collector of second-hand Chanel products".

Why are second-hand luxury brands such as WGACA and the Real Real burning for so long that they are only now caught up in traditional luxury brands?

For a long time, luxury brands knew little about these second-hand retailers.

Luxury brands also try to avoid trading with second-hand traders. On the one hand, they are worried about the exclusivity of the brand, and on the other hand, they are afraid that the sales volume will be partitioned.

But now luxury brands find it hard to ignore second-hand luxury business.

According to the analysis by Reuters quoted Berenberg, the annual sales volume of second-hand luxury goods has reached 25 billion US dollars in 2018, and the market growth rate is expected to reach 10% in the coming years. This data has exceeded the expected sales growth rate of first-rate luxury goods.

In the face of the increasing volume of online luxury goods market, traditional luxury companies can not afford to sit back.

Although there is no sign that luxury brands are planning to start their own second-hand business, there are news that LVMH and Kai Yun group have begun to contact second-hand retail websites to try to figure out how they can make profits in the secondary market.

In addition, with the rapid growth of online luxury goods stores and the booming of the second hand luxury market, those fake fake bags have ushered in the two life.

The business mode of online second-hand luxury stores determines that the flow of fake packages is more convenient. These second-hand stores have strong supplier networks, rely on multi-channel retailers or consumers, and the circulation of fake packages is almost inevitable.

Therefore, in the face of the impact of the rapid growth of the second hand luxury goods market on the sales of traditional luxury brands and the rampant counterfeit goods, unlike other luxury brands, Chanel has always chosen another way to fight against the brand and trademark value protection.

Chanel has a lot of litigation experience in protecting trademark rights and brand image.

In addition to combating counterfeiters and selling fake electronic business platforms, Chanel will not tolerate any counterfeit trademarks and brands that may cause misunderstanding.

Last year, the company even sued an independent retail store in Michigan to prevent the brand from doing business in the name of "Shanel".

However, the second-hand retailers who want to sell genuine goods have made a lot of efforts in cracking down on counterfeit goods. One effort is to continuously expand the ranks of their "counterfeiting experts".

In the online second hand luxury market, the high circulation rate of goods and the rapid growth of platform have brought great challenges to online secondhand shops to identify the authenticity of commodities.

Therefore, these companies need a team to have a comprehensive understanding of the entry and exit of certain luxury goods. These people must even be able to weed out those products that are almost false.

The Real Real's chief identification officer once told the media that the fake expert was "a career not yet a few years ago".

He said that the company's fake experts "either come from the New York Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and Parsons School of Design (Parsons School of design) graduates, or those who have worked in the the Real Real sales field."

In any case, from a legal point of view, these "fake experts" are not trustworthy, and it is not worth believing. We estimate that it will take some time to see how the lawsuit of Chanel and the Real Real will eventually go.