In a directive, that can have far-reaching implication for online sales, a Delhi Court restricted online retailer Amazon from selling counterfeit products. The online retail space has little regulations so far.
The Delhi High Court on Monday restrained Amazon Export Sales LLC from selling counterfeit products through its Amazon Global Store. Beverly Hills Polo Club had sought the court’s intervention against Amazon India and Amazon Export Sales LLC for trademark infringement by the online retailer.
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Beverly Hills Polo Club dragged Amazon to court claiming that it was knowingly and directly selling as well as harbouring counterfeiting activities, which were being actively promoted by its global store as well as by third-party sellers on Amazon.in.
A possible ramification of this could be that the global online retailer may have to stop selling the certain products, which could take the price point of the product category higher than what consumers in a price sensitive market like India like.
“There ought to be check and balances under any law such that rights are not unfairly exploited. Despite our continuing notification to Amazon of infringing activities, sold directly by Amazon, as well as by third-party sellers, Amazon has continued its illegal and abusive practices and actively promoted the sale of counterfeit products,” said, Eli Haddad, founder & managing director, Beverly Hills Polo Club said in a statement.
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“Counterfeiting activities on Amazon have seriously impacted the brand in India. Due to the safe harbour provided to infringers by Amazon, we do not have fair access to the Indian market. Due to the rapid expansion of e-commerce shopping in India, of which Amazon is both credible and dominant in India with the offer of cheap and inferior counterfeit products by Amazon’s own store as well as third parties, the brand has been impacted. Amazon is clearly abusing its dominant position in the Indian market,” the statement said.
Beverly Hills Polo earlier, this year had claimed that some of Amazon’s sellers were involved in widespread supply and sale of counterfeit goods. “The defendant shall remove forthwith from its platform any URLs which are pointed out by the plaintiff which are selling products in violation of the plaintiff ’s right,” a July 2018 court ruling said so.
The Delhi High Court also directed Amazon Export Sales LLC to disclose the details of all its suppliers who provide the counterfeit product stock to the Amazon Global store for further resale.