A client walks by way of an American Eagle bind on November 21, 2023 in Glendale, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Photographs
American Eagle Outfitters is suing Amazon for trademark infringement, alleging the e-commerce gigantic impaired branding from its Aerie clothes order in seek effects, eminent customers to “inferior quality knock-offs.”
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, American Eagle accused Amazon of “flagrant, unauthorized use” of the Aerie and Offline by way of Aerie emblems on its web page to mislead customers into believing the goods have been to be had on Amazon, power visitors to its platform and promote competing products. The criticism used to be filed in U.S. District Courtroom for the Southern District of Untouched York.
American Eagle mentioned it didn’t authorize Amazon to promote merchandise from its Aerie order of yoga pants, underwear, loungewear and alternative apparel, including that it “intentionally declined so Aerie can foster its own brand identity and customer experience.” American Eagle, based in 1977, introduced the Aerie emblem in 2006.
A client on the lookout for Aerie merchandise on Google will see subsidized and natural hyperlinks to Amazon’s website online, the lawsuit says. Clicking on a hyperlink results in an Amazon webpage that “displays only knock-offs and ‘dupes'” of Aerie merchandise, together with sweatshirts and workout shorts, American Eagle alleges. The corporate mentioned it notified Amazon “over a month ago” of the infringing merchandise, however says they have been relabeled with misspellings of its Aerie emblems, together with “Aeries,” “Arie” or “Aries.”
“These ads are intended to (and do) trick customers into thinking that by clicking the provided link, they will be able to ‘Shop Aerie’ or ‘Save on Offline by Aerie’ on the ‘Official Amazon Site,'” the criticism states. “These statements are patently false because customers cannot shop for Aerie products on Amazon.”
Most of the alleged Aerie knock-offs referenced within the lawsuit are offered by way of third-party dealers on Amazon’s on-line market. Introduced in 2000, {the marketplace} lets in companies to peddle their items at the corporate’s web page. It’s accumulated thousands and thousands of dealers, and accounts for greater than part of all items offered at the web page.
Amazon has confronted indistinguishable proceedings for years. In 2016, shoemaker Birkenstock announced it might whisk its merchandise from Amazon in accordance with a surge in counterfeits. That date, German automaker Daimler AG sued Amazon nearest it found out knock-off variations of Mercedes-Benz wheels offered by way of a third-party vendor.
In 2019, Amazon added a order to the “risk factors” category of its annual monetary submitting ultimatum buyers of the rising ultimatum of third-party dealers peddling counterfeits. Since later, the corporate has stepped up its efforts to police counterfeits on its web page, launching a team that pursues felony motion towards counterfeiters, filing lawsuits and rolling out equipment to aid manufacturers give protection to their emblems.
Amazon representatives didn’t in an instant reply to a request for remark. The corporate has previously said it prohibits the sale of counterfeits on its web page.
American Eagle is looking for an injunction and monetary damages according to Amazon’s alleged trademark infringement.
