Louis Vuitton: left authentic / right fake


Lady Dior: left authentic / right fake


Fake Chanel and Louis Vuitton wallet


Fake Lacoste crocodile logos


Chloé Paddington: above authentic / below fake


Chanel necklace: obviously fake. Beware! Authenticity cards are also copied by counterfeiters


A press used by counterfeiters to copy the Louis Vuitton famous Monogram print.


For the ones that still don't know: If you buy fakes you support criminal activities!!!

On the second day we decided to take it slow. So we did some shopping in St. Germain, paid a visit to the Jardin du Luxembourg and ended our visit at the Musée de la Contrefaçon.

Anyone interested in learning more about counterfeits (fakes) should really pay this museum a visit! The museum was created in 1951 and is managed by the Union des Fabricants, the foremost French anti-counterfeiting association. All the goods on display have been the subject of a court ruling or settlement out of court. You may not be aware of this, but the great majority of these products are infringing trademark rights or copyrights.

We took lots of pictures. Although I have decided to show you only a few fake designer goods, we have also spotted fake car parts, cigarettes, foodstuffs, medicine (such as Viagra) and even pregnancy tests and condoms!

Finally some figures:

• Counterfeiting represents 5 to 10% of the world trade.
• 9,4 million articles seized by the French customs in 2008.
• 178 million goods seized by EU customs in 2008, 79 million in 2007.
• 100,000 lost jobs in Europe. 30,000 in France.

Say No To Fake and help to make this a counterfeit-free world.

Hi guys! I'm back from a short break to Puerto Banus, Marbella, Spain! Oh boy, we took so many pictures, since I bought a new dSLR camera! But before showing you a selection of pictures first some counterfeit news.


Frommel wants to join us on our trip to Marbella!

Well, basically if you're looking for a nice designer bag (authentic or fake), Marbella apparantly is the place to be. For the ones that never heard of this place before, Marbella is the St. Tropez of Spain. With the mondain harbour Puerto Banus, lots of people find their way to this decadent place to enjoy the sun, good food, beautiful cars and many designer shops.


Welcome to Puerto Banus and please watch out for the bar...

Brands such as Missoni, Gucci, Tod's Hermès, Dior, Valentino, Lanvin, Louis Vuitton, etc are well presented here. Unfortunately despite the fact that many people in this great place should have plenty of money to spend in one of these stores, lots and lots of them rather spend their money on a fake bag or watch you can easily purchase on the street.

The streets of Marbella are full with counterfeit vendors out in the open offering their fake stuff to tourists as if it's legal merchandise they're selling. On a regular night that we went out to have a few drinks, every 3 minutes these guys would pass by and offer their fake products, most of these fakes being Louis Vuitton bags!

You could tell that Louis Vuitton is very popular in Marbella. For every authentic LV bag you could easily spot 10 fakes. It's shocking to see so many women and (teenage) girls carrying the fake version of the popular Speedy or Neverfull in Damier Azur Canvas.

After being confronted with this tsunami of fakes I think I never ever want to buy a Louis Vuitton again! :(

Here are some pictures of counterfeit vendors, that we secretly took:



 

 

 
Prada? Louis Vuitton? I guess these pictures speak for themselves.

And you know what? For some strange reason we even felt sorry for these guys. Most probably these guys are just trying to make a living. It's the criminal organisation that is taking care of the supply/logistics of these fakes and underpaying these guys that is the worrying part!

Fakes are starting to become a hot topic and I truly believe that there will come a time when people start to realize that fakes are no good! 

Today, widely spread in the media is this story about this 65-year-old Austrian lady that bought something that turned out to be a very expensive fake! It must have seemed too good to be true to her! She managed to negotiate a bargain price for her Louis Vuitton bag and only paid 7 euro instead of 50 euro. Besides, the seller guaranteed her that it was an authentic purse.

But what was she thinking?! Did she really think that she could buy an authentic Louis Vuitton purse for only 7 euro on the beach, while these things normally costs hundreds of euros Well, unfortunately for her it turned out to be a fake (naturally) and the police in Jesolo, near Venice, handed the lady a 1,000 euro fine for buying fake goods which is in violation of local regulations.

This summer more and more places in Italy are starting to conduct a zero-tolerance policy against fake and buyers of fakes are taking a big risk of getting a fine when caught.

Most sellers of fakes on the Italian beaches are immigrants from Africa or Asia and get their supplies from criminal gangs. They can really be a nuisance. There are stories of people that had been approached 48 times a day by these vendors trying to sell their fakes.

It has been reported that 42 million fake products have been confiscated from these sellers on the beach in the period January until April this year.

Best way to avoid getting caught: Don't buy it! You're not saving yourself some (or a lot of) money. You will also avoid being mocked by others who can easily spot you're wearing a fake! ;)

Read more here.

eBay recently sent out a petition to everyone who ever bought or sold something on their online marketplace within the European Union. The petition is called: “Demand an end to unfair trade practices”.

In this petition eBay is asking people to sign the petition in order to have the EU competition law amended to stop these so-called “unfair trade practices” so that brands will no longer be able to block the sales of their products at online marketplaces and other websites regardless whether these products are new, second-hand, authentic or fake.

However, eBay did not mention that these brands had decided to take these drastic measures after unfruitful requests to eBay asking them to take appropriate measures against the sale of counterfeit products.

Also, did you know that eBay has been involved in numerous law suits in the past couple of years?

In France, eBay lost a counterfeit lawsuit filed by LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy), which is the owner of  Louis Vuitton , amongst others. According to LVMH, eBay did not take appropriate action against fake Louis Vuitton bags, accessories and fake perfumes being offered on the eBay website. In this case the judge decided that eBay had to pay a fine of 40 million Euros for the sale of counterfeit products of LVMH to LVMH.

Hermès also successfully sued eBay for the sale of two fake Hermès handbags. Both eBay and the seller were sentenced to pay 20,000 Euros to Hermès.

Brand owners Tiffany and L’Oréal were also involved in lawsuits against eBay for the alleged sale of fake products in the past.

And finally, last week, footwear and accessories designer Steve Madden sued eBay for fake watches being sold on their online marketplace. According to Steve Madden eBay has not only failed to remove all watches with the Steve Madden trademark from their website," the Long Island City-based company said. eBay also "has failed to take any steps to police the eBay auction site."

Would you as a buyer not want to have the security of buying an authentic product instead of having the risk of buying a fake? Would it not be much better to know that you can trust online marketplaces for taking all the necessary measures to prevent the sale of counterfeits on their site, giving consumers the confidence that they can safely purchase products on their website?

Before you decide to sign this petition, please think clearly about the consequences of doing so! It looks like brand owners are trying to make it as difficult as possible for us consumers to simply buy and sell stuff online. However, this is not the case. After trying to find a solid partner in online marketplaces to prevent the sales of counterfeit goods with no success, the brand owners find themselves in a position where they apparently have no other options left than to take much more drastic measures.

Therefore buyer beware! If you sign this petition, you might just increase the risk of buying a fake online!

As Joey Tribbiani would say: "What's there not to like?" Louis Vuitton? Good! Marc Jacobs? Good! Bunny Ears? Good!

Take a look at The Official Making Of "Madonna for Louis Vuitton":

In one of her shows, Tyra Banks paid special attention to fake designer bags and how you can distinguish fake from authentic.

If you want to know how you can tell a bag is fake, take a look at this clip:

 
Clip taken from: Tyrashow.warnerbros.com

Het loopt de spuigaten uit al dat namaak! Vroeger konden merken zich focussen op marketing en reclame van hun producten om zo de verkoop van hun producten op te schroeven. Tegenwoordig zijn diverse merken genoodzaakt om een groot gedeelte van hun budget te besteden aan de bestrijding van namaak. Eén van de merken die extreem veel te maken heeft met namaak is Louis Vuitton.

Zij hebben zich zelfs genoodzaakt gezien om op hun site een notice te plaatsen met de melding dat ze een zero tolerance beleid hanteren als het om namaakproducten gaat. Zo hebben ze vorig jaar o.a. 13.000 juridische acties tegen namaakproducten gestart en zijn er vorig jaar 1.000 inbreukmakers gearresteerd.

Let op: authentieke Louis Vuitton producten zijn alleen te koop bij de Louis Vuitton winkels en via de websites www.louisvuitton.com en www.eluxury.com.

Wees dus voorzichtig dat je niet opgescheept wordt met een namaak als je via andere kanalen iets van Louis Vuitton wilt aanschaffen!
Besef je goed dat dit grote budget voor de bestrijding van namaak de consument uiteindelijk direct in de portemonnee zal raken… De prijzen van de authentieke producten zal hoger komen te liggen, door de kosten die gemaakt dienen te worden voor de acties die Louis Vuitton dient te ondernemen.

Mocht je dus jezelf zoet willen houden met een goedkope knock-off totdat je voldoende geld hebt verzameld voor een echte tas? Spaar dan nog maar even wat langer door, je hebt er meteen voor gezorgd dat dat echte tasje ook wat duurder is geworden door jouw knock-offje! Hopelijk neem je dit in je overwegingen mee als je in de verleiding, die namaak heet, wordt gebracht!

Jaren geleden, toen ik me aan het verdiepen was in de wereld die Louis Vuitton heet en E-bay langzaamaan bekendheid verkreeg in Nederland, stuitte ik op een Amerikaanse website waar een advocate voorlichting gaf over de aankoop van Louis Vuitton-tassen op het internet: www.mypoupette.com

Nu, jaren later, is de website uitgegroeid tot een begrip voor iedereen die goed beslagen ten ijs wil komen bij het kopen van een designer tas. My Poupette houdt zich bezig met voorlichting geven over het kopen van designertassen en het controleren van de echtheid van de op internet aangeboden tassen. In het begin was dit beperkt tot Louis Vuitton, maar tegenwoordig kan de bezoeker ook bij hen terecht als ze de echtheid willen checken van tassen van vele andere merken.

Aan deze service zijn echter wel kosten verbonden, maar dan heb je wel de garantie dat je met een authentiek product te maken hebt.