Reuters: Fendi sues Wal-Mart over sales of fake handbags

Fendi sues Wal-Mart over sales of fake handbags
Fri Jun 9, 2006

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Italian fashion group Fendi S.R.L. sued Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in U.S. federal court on Friday, accusing the world's largest retailer of selling counterfeit handbags and passing them off as genuine at its Sam's Club warehouse stores.

Sam's Club stores in California, New York, Florida and other states sold knock off handbags, wallets and key chains that were identified as "genuine" Fendi products, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The suit by Fendi said that Wal-Mart has never purchased its products and never asked Fendi if any of the items bearing its trademark were genuine.

Fendi products are typically sold at high-end department stores like Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue in the United States and Fendi boutiques all over the world....

***

In one example cited in the lawsuit, a black handbag bearing Fendi's trademark logo was offered for sale in a Sam's Club store in Miami for $508.25, 45 percent less than the retail price of $930 for a genuine Fendi bag....

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyid=2006-06-09T225550Z_01_N09308490_RTRUKOC_0_US-RETAIL-WALMART-LAWSUIT.xml&src=rss&rpc=23

Oh, what is a guy to do?

But, seriously, where are the Feds on this one?

on a friggin PURSE - GEEZ there are a lot of vain people around

you can get one way cheaper on Canal Street. Hell, my mom buys knock-offs daily from a teacher she works with.

never had a need for "name brands"

Oh, the wonders of Chinatown, eh ? :D

IDs. I think they've all been shut down now though.

:sarcasm:

I've seen a Fendi bag in Neiman Marcus that sells for over $5,000.

and, I hope that this is publicized enough that the people who purchased these counterfeit items will demand their money back.

I hope they get a big judgement against Wal-Mart.

for hundreds of dollars and wait till she finds out they are fakes... Oh Boy!!!
:argh:

When driving up to one of these behemoth stores---people hauling out 100lb sacks of dog-food, qallon tins of pork-n-beans, backyard tiki torches---does anyone seriously think they're gonna find REAL top-shelf Italian handmade purses from Fendi???

What next, flawless 5 carat diamonds? "It was a steal, honey, so I picked up three of 'em!"

My dad was right: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

All that glitters....

No one who shops at Wal Mart is there to buy a Fendi purse, and people shopping for Fendi handbags are sure as hell not going to be looking for them at Wal Mart.

Don't those knock offs usually have names like "Rendi" or some such crap? I can't believe this is even worth Fendi's time.

Sam's Club (Wal Mart) does indeed offer high-end merchandise. A couple of years ago I saw an insert in the Dallas Morning News advertising a diamond necklace for $300,000 at a local Sam's Club. Here is a link featuring items that are clearly worth a fortune.

<http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?catg=4549>

For the record, I do NOT shop at Wal Mart.

.

I'd never spend that kind of cash on a bag, but as an avid yard sale/church bazaar attendee I've found designer bags for a couple of bucks. Sadly, about 75% of the time they turn out to be knockoffs. There's no excuse for Walmart to sell this stuff. A trained buyer can tell real from fake.

a cheap purse from Ross dress for less has sufficed for me, but no, I won't be carrying my cell phone, wallet,keys, hairbrush, eye drops, and medications around in my hot little hands while I'm clothed in pocketless attire.

shops at wall mart and spends $500.00 on a purse....jeeze with such a good economy you think they wouldn't have to shop wally world.

I don't know but I hope wally has to pay for it they know what they are doing. Still it is hard to feel bad it I mean $500.00 or 1000.00...someone even said 5000.00 for a freaken purse...I like to think even if I had money I would have more brains to spend 500.00 on a purse...yikes.

less than $20 individually on the street and in the markets of Thailand and Vietnam. Around Saigon, where I live half of the time, they are closer to $10 for very high quality, fake, name brand bags and wallets. Of course you could pay much more here, but only if you are naive. These bags even have the correct lining inside. I know of $10 fake Louis Vuitton purses that have been sent by mail from Thailand and inspected & passed by US customs with no problem.

It's just stupid. Why waste so much money on a bag with someone elses' initials all over it?! Granted they are high quality, well crafted bags, but whenever I choose a bag or shoes, I make my choice based on quality, craftsmanship, style, function, and most importantly whether my choice helps me feel more of an "individual".

NOT a clone. :puke:

I like your motives, re: objects and brands.
With the great designer or maker you can tell: know and appreciate their work without a logo/name/brand, and they seem to feel secure enough not to have to mark up their work that way.

Consumer fetishists are clueless marks in a huge con: they're paying inflated prices for goods, in order to advertise for others, who are anxious to sell them more and more goods, and on and on. Things like this make me sad for our culture, and mad that it spreads across the Earth like kudzu. So much old and true culture worldwide, that is marginalized by labels and silly fashion...diversity suffers.

Thanks, TheGoldenRule, for reminding us to be real.

Thorstein Veblen said it best with the phrase "conspicuous consumption". Most irrational behavior (especially consumerism) can be traced back to status displays of one sort or another.

From handbags to H-bombs.

when i spend that amount for a bag it's unique and beautiful. fendis, guccis, l. vuittons are totally classless and mass produced for show-offs.

And I do 90% of my shopping at garage sales. Even at $1 or $2 per item I still refuse to be a walking billboard.

sell the rich idiots cheap knockoffs.

one involved in this? Seems to me if Fendi has the proof--pretty easy thing to do--then of course a civil suit, but where exactly is are all the state district attorneys?

This is criminal fraud--Wal-Mart shamelessly ripped off their customers with the same intent as any dollar-store huckster...their size and clout really shouldn't matter a damn bit. Has law enforcement bothered to appraoch Wal-Mart for evidence--perhaps they were fooled as well?

One would assume all this is going on behind the scenes somehow, but I doubt it..."selling counterfeit handbags and passing them off as genuine at its Sam's Club warehouse stores."<--this is a serious charge, no?

How much other fake shit are they selling? By 'fake' I do mean the other 'fake' stuff in the health and safety categories as well...

Talk about a business that needs it books opened...too the Feds these days are only interested in busting pot-smoking cancer patients, torturing innocent people and busting illegal dwonloading.

my Sierra Club backpack for toting my shite around, but that's just moi.

This sounds like beau coup baggage for the major proponent of replealing the estate tax. What were they thinking?

....when the moronic sheeple get fucked by their own kind? This is delicious.

for as little as $20. If it doesn't have a serial number it probably is a fake.