Fake Luxury Taking Over Real Luxury
Priscilla Febus
Business Fashion Section Editor
Through the streets of New York City and resellers online, it has become popular for people to buy replicas of luxury items to avoid paying to steep price of the original. Some of the popular brands that are counterfeited include Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Prada. While it provides a self-esteem boost for some to flaunt that they have designer items, despite it being counterfeit, at the end of the day it affects these companies in more ways than expected.
Many people question whether someone’s luxury handbag or belt is real because of the number of counterfeits sold. In 2016, it was reported that globally, the business of counterfeit goods has a worth of $461 billion dollars. This leads to two issues for the original designer brand companies, their reputation starts to be questioned whenever someone has an item of their brand, and they are losing out on potential customers who prefer to spend less for more counterfeit products. There is less of a desire to own a luxury item that people will question its authenticity because it looks almost exactly the same as a replica seen online, and not everyone wants to pay the original price for an original item that can be replicated.
In the past when selling counterfeit items was only done in person, there were times that the police would raid locations in which these items were being sold. While it did not completely eliminate it from ever happening, it did decrease the occurrences therefore helping designer brands keep their reputation and revenue more afloat. But now with the accessibility of selling items through websites like eBay, DHgate, and Depop to quickly ship and send money, it is hard to take the thousands of postings down. As technology advances, the accessibility for everyone to have a designer item despite being counterfeit is unavoidable.
This past April, Gucci and Facebook had teamed up for a lawsuit against a user that was selling counterfeit products on her online stores via social media. According to the lawsuit, Facebook’s rules include prohibiting accounts that “infringe or violate someone else’s rights, including their intellectual property rights.” In this case, the rights of Gucci and its designs were being infringed. While Gucci had the resources and time for this lawsuit, there are thousands of profiles that could also be given a lawsuit, but it becomes almost impossible for designer brands to get through all of them. The future of counterfeit luxury goods seems inevitable, and everyone will have to stay on the lookout for what the next steps will be for luxury brands in the future.
Contact Priscilla at febuspri@shu.edu