Italian luxury fashion house Gucci and social network company Facebook Inc. (FB) have jointly filed for a lawsuit against a counterfeiter who according to the filing used Facebook’s platforms to sell counterfeit Gucci products.
This development it’s first of its kind whereby, a social media company is joining hands with a good or service selling company to crack the whip on a counterfeiter using a social media platform to sell fake goods to unsuspecting customers.
In a joint statement, the both parties are accusing unidentified user possessing multiple Facebook and Instagram accounts for marketing and promoting fake Gucci products across the accounts which are solely for doing international online counterfeit business.
Due to the pandemic, physical shops selling luxury bags, clothes, shoes among other items were forced to close down due to lockdown measures put in place to curtail spread of the deadly virus.
This resulted to an increased demand of online shopping as clients shifted to shopping online since physical stores were no longer accessible. This came with increased fake goods being sold online.
Facebook says in the first half of 2020 it removed over 1 million fake items from its Instagram and Facebook platform.
