Retail News CRM

Tag: counterfeits

  • Singapore Police Seize over 900 Fake Luxury Goods in Scotts Road Raid

    Singapore Police Seize over 900 Fake Luxury Goods in Scotts Road Raid

    Singapore Police Force officers seized more than 900 counterfeit items with an estimated street value exceeding S$180,000 ($141,000) during a raid on Scotts Road last Wednesday.

    Officers targeted two retail units inside a shopping mall, arresting two women, aged 39 and 54, on suspicion of involvement in the sale of trademark-infringing goods.

    Enforcement Action on Scotts Road

    The seized inventory spanned multiple categories, including fake luxury handbags, watches, apparel, footwear, and accessories carrying falsely applied trademarks.

    Under Singapore law, possessing goods with falsely applied trademarks for commercial trade carries a fine of up to S$100,000, a prison term of up to five years, or both. Formal investigations remain underway.

    Prime Real Estate Proximity

    The raid took place near Orchard Road, Singapore’s flagship retail thoroughfare. The district ranked 13th globally among the most expensive shopping streets by annual rental values in Cushman & Wakefield’s Main Streets Across the World 2025 report.

    Commercial developments along Scotts Road include Far East Plaza, Scotts Square, and Shaw Centre. Illicit trade inside high-rent corridors creates reputational challenges for landlords competing for licensed brand tenancies.

    Risks for Brick-and-Mortar Retailers

    Physical storefronts selling counterfeit goods face scrutiny as luxury brands step up monitoring across Southeast Asia. Unauthorized trading once concentrated in gray markets and online channels. Mall distribution now exposes property owners to direct compliance risks.

    Landlords across prime Singapore retail nodes maintain strict tenancy clauses regarding trademark compliance. Operators caught dealing in infringing goods face immediate lease termination alongside criminal liabilities.

    The Next Enforcement Steps

    Investigators from the Singapore Police Force are conducting forensic reviews of the confiscated merchandise to trace supply sources and vendor networks. Prosecutors will determine further charges as the probe into both outlets progresses.

  • Luxury Evermore Flags Cloned Chanel Serial Code Found 127 Times Across 36 Countries

    Luxury Evermore Flags Cloned Chanel Serial Code Found 127 Times Across 36 Countries

    Singapore resale platform Luxury Evermore found a single Chanel serial code repeated 127 times across 36 countries in its authentication database, exposing widespread counterfeit production.

    The code, 10218184, showed up on multiple bag models submitted to the firm’s free authentication screening tool, directly contradicting the brand’s rule that each code belongs to one specific bag.

    Database Flags Cloned Code

    Submissions came through Luxury Evermore’s consumer review service, which screens pre-owned luxury items to weed out fakes in the secondary market. Counterfeiters routinely duplicate legitimate serial strings because they lack access to internal luxury brand databases.

    “There are specific patterns and details on these tags that are very difficult to replicate,” Luxury Evermore founder Mingchuan Tian said. The company noted that while a single code match does not automatically prove a bag is fake, any pre-owned piece bearing the 10218184 string requires physical inspection before purchase.

    Shift to Microchip Authentication

    Chanel changed its authentication architecture in 2021, replacing physical authenticity cards and interior sticker tags with embedded microchips and metal plaques. Bags made before that transition remain heavily traded across Asian consignment platforms, leaving older serial numbers exposed to industrial-scale cloning.

    Secondary luxury platforms across Southeast Asia and East Asia face rising costs as authentication moves from simple serial checks to multi-point material inspections. As counterfeit operations replicate physical tags across multiple product lines, resale operators are tightening screening protocols on legacy inventory to protect platform credibility.

    Resellers tracking the 10218184 code are now screening pre-2021 inventory for matching batch anomalies across regional intake hubs.

  • Salvatore Ferragamo wins US$60 million payout over counterfeit product

    Salvatore Ferragamo wins US$60 million payout over counterfeit product

    A New York court has confirmed an injunction against 60 unidentified holders of illegal online profiles and the transfer to Salvatore Ferragamo of about 150 domains that were infringing upon the luxury brand’s rights.

    The websites were selling counterfeit Salvatore Ferragamo products, and the court ruling acknowledged the substantial damage this had caused for the luxury Italian brand, ordering US$60 million in compensation.

    Also comprising exemplary damages, the ruling was the highest ever awarded for this type of violation, says Salvatore Ferragamo Group chairman Ferruccio Ferragamo.

    “The internet is the prime channel for traffickers of counterfeit goods and so is the focus of our monitoring and control efforts. In recent years, our group has implemented a series of anti-counterfeiting measures, both on- and off-line, to protect our customers and the value of our brand.”

    These measures last year enabled the group to have more than 35,000 items and illegal profiles removed from major social networks, as well as the interception, blocking and deletion of nearly 69,000 counterfeit products from online auctions.

    Furthermore, the group constantly monitors offline markets through court and out-of-court activities, focusing its efforts on China. About 62,000 counterfeit products were seized in China last year, out of the more than 268,000 counterfeit products seized around the world.

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  • Belstaff counterfeit sites shut down

    Belstaff counterfeit sites shut down

    Luxury fashion brand Belstaff has won a court battle against online counterfeiters, winning $42 million in damages and leading up an unprecedented 676 copycat websites being shut down.

    The win was announced by MarkMonitor, a specialist in enterprise brand protection, which worked with Belstaff to identify and pursue the copycats.

    MarkMonitor used technology to identify some 3000 websites selling counterfeits products – more than 800 of them managed by one individual based in China.

    After the evidence was collected, a civil lawsuit was lodged in the US, with counterfeiters ordered to pay the $42 million and nearly 700 websites handed over to the brand.

    “There are other high profile luxury brands that have taken advantage of the US counterfeiting law, however we believe that our case has set the bar even higher due to the unprecedented number of sites that were taken down in one go,” said Elena Mauri, head of legal with Belstaff.

    “The whole legal process took less than four months and none of the single top 20 websites that were cited in the case are still in operation today. We certainly wouldn’t hesitate to take this legal route in the future, and we will continue to take a zero tolerance approach to any further illicit counterfeiting behaviour.”

    The legal result follows the company’s decision to embark on a major protection program for all of its IP – from registering of trademarks to individual products, including seeking external help from MarkMonitor.

    The program was put in place to monitor the full range of the different marketplaces and individual websites selling counterfeit products. The search also focused on any websites using the Belstaff name in their domain name, as well as generic sites listing counterfeit products.

    Gavin Haig, Belstaff CEO, said eCommerce has been a major driver of the brand’s growth.

    “However, alongside the clear benefits of venturing into the online retail market, we were aware of the potential negative impact from counterfeiters. Right from the outset, we have been determined to stop our customers falling prey to counterfeiters. We want to do everything in our power to protect our loyal customer base and our hard-earned 91 year old heritage.”

    The majority of the counterfeit products were jackets and outerwear, particularly counterfeit copies of Belstaff’s best-selling leather jackets. The copies were many seasons old; designs no longer in production.

    MarkMonitor’s technology is capable of exploring an entire network of sites, including both the index and non-index results, as well as examine fundamental criteria such as the website’s design and the payment processes.

    Jerome Sicard, regional manager, Southern Europe, said the court decision sends a stark warning to online counterfeiters and underlines the increasing importance of online brand protection.

    “This is not the first case of its kind, however the Belstaff ruling is unusual due to the substantial number of websites being handed over to the brand.”

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  • Alibaba counterfeit guide launched

    Alibaba counterfeit guide launched

    Alibaba Group has launched an English-language version of its online system for reporting intellectual property (IP) infringements that occur on its giant Chinese e-shopping marketplaces Taobao.com and Tmall.com.

    The system, called TaoProtect, is designed to make it easier for companies to report merchants who are selling counterfeit products on the Taobao and Tmall platforms, facilitating the efficient removal of infringing product listings. Through TaoProtect, companies can also file complaints for other IP violations such as copyright infringement, patent infringement and unfair use of trademarks.

    TaoProtect is similar to another IP-complaint system operated by Alibaba called AliProtect that covers global wholesale marketplace Alibaba.com, global shopping website AliExpress and China wholesale marketplace 1688.com.

    The debut of the English version of TaoProtect will make the system more accessible to Western companies, said Xinghao Wang, Alibaba Group’s U.S.-based senior intellectual property protection manager. “Because the success and integrity of our marketplaces depend on consumer trust, we have comprehensive policies and practices in place to fight IP infringement,” Wang said, including the use of data-analysis technology to monitor the sites for counterfeit-product listings.

    Due to the sheer size of Taobao and Tmall – Alibaba’s China retail platforms host some 10 million active sellers – the company also works with rights holders to make its efforts more effective. That’s where TaoProtect comes in, Wang said. By providing an online system for alerting Alibaba to infringement on Taobao and Tmall, Alibaba is better able to identify suspicious listings that may be missed by the company’s internal countermeasures, he said.

    Wang noted that filing a complaint does not automatically result in takedowns. To safeguard the rights of all parties, the TaoProtect process is set up to determine whether complaints are legitimate, and to ensure that Taobao and Tmall merchants who abide by the platforms’ established rules are not unfairly penalised.

    The reporting system helps serve a larger purpose, too, he said: “Information received through TaoProtect and AliProtect is an essential part of the rule-making effort, and the data in the reporting system may also be used in the monitoring system.”

    In the video, the founder of a US maker of innovative cutting tools explains how he uses AliProtect to keep copycats at bay.

    “The more popular your products are, the higher the likelihood that someone is going to be copying you at some point, that form of flattery that no one really wants,” says TJ Scimone of Slice. By using AliProtect, he says he successfully got knock-offs of his products “shut down (and) off the site.”