Learning From The Hard Working of Louis Vuitton and Alibaba Against Counterfeiting
Counterfeiting is a never-ending problem for famous brands. According to the World Customs Organization, the circulation of counterfeit goods have led to the loss of the fashion industry worth more than £5 billion and about 400,000 people had lost their jobs for 20 years.
Louis Vuitton as the most valuable luxury brand in the world with a value of USD 28.1 billion is considered to be the most aggressive in terms of combating counterfeiting. The French brand does not hesitate to keep its products from counterfeiters with legal department and an annual budget of 15 million euro.
This luxury brand is famous for ‘fierce’ about counterfeiting. Indeed, LV becomes one of the luxury brands that are often counterfeited. One of its many well-known counterfeiting cases is the LV vs Singga Enterprise case. The Canadian-based company finally knelt down and paid US$ 1.4 million for destruction cost to LV.
The digital era makes the distribution easier
The development of the internet brings the problem of counterfeiting to a higher stage because counterfeiters find a simpler way to reach consumers anywhere in the world. Now, fake products can be found in many e-commerce and online platforms.
Take a look at the case that happened in 2011 where LV demanding e-Bay to pay compensation of 38.6 million Euro for selling counterfeit products. In mid-2004, LV demanded an Amazon seller of $ 60 million for trading counterfeit products.
Collaboration in the supply chain
Significant developments in the digital world make the brand must work harder against counterfeiting. Instead of working alone, the brand is required to collaborate closely with stakeholders in the supply chain. In this case, LV and Alibaba work together against counterfeiting by leverage analytic and big data.
Alibaba is a Chinese e-commerce giant known as the largest counterfeit goods market. Since there were so many counterfeit goods traded on this Jack Ma’s e-commerce, it was included in ‘ the counterfeit goods watch list’ by the USA. Since then Alibaba started cleaning up itself.
Last year, the giant announced the establishment of Alibaba Group Anti-Counterfeiting Alliance (AACA) with more than 20 international brands incorporated in it, including Louis Vuitton. This proactive attitude seems to start coming to fruition. Alibaba reported that the average refund for falsely suspected products in 2017 was reduced by 29% compared to 2016 in the same period.
Sources:
http://www.china.org.cn/business/2018-01/11/content_50214461.htm
https://fashionista.com/2017/06/louis-vuitton-counterfeit-lawsuit
