The problem of counterfeit, or in layman’s language, fake luxury goods, is only getting worse in India. But in an interesting move, luxury brands like Versace, Jimmy Choo and more are taking a very, unique angle, one could say, to find a solution to this problem. As per reports, these luxury brands in India are now hiring secret investigators to find sellers of counterfeit goods before taking action against them.
(If Bollywood is looking for any original ideas, this might be one.)
Counterfeit goods being a problem in the country is not new. If you walk down any big marketplace in the country, you can very easily find multiple little shops/roadside vendors and more selling fake Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Nike, Puma and more. Recently, this has also expanded to makeup, where sellers are putting up stalls selling brands that are not available officially in the country.
Now, reports believe that many of these same luxury brands that have been getting knocked off have, for years, been actively employing private investigators in Delhi and other Indian cities to fight fake goods.
What Did Versace Do?
According to a Moneycontrol exclusive report, Versace took this step last month, when it discovered a bulk seller in East Delhi selling fake goods by the brand, with the help of a secret investigator they had hired.
Insider sources having knowledge of the matter revealed that the secret investigator had collected evidence of this seller and what counterfeit products they were selling, before submitting it to the company.
According to the tip, several sellers across Delhi were getting fake goods from this seller worth a few lakhs; this included fake Versace products as well.
Versace then filed a case against the seller with the police, who registered a First Information Report(FIR), carried out a raid at their shop and seized the counterfeit products.
It must be said, though, that so far, there have been no further details made public about this case. We don’t know where this seller was located, which shops they were supplying to, which exact Versace products were being counterfeited or what price they were being sold at.
This is not the first time Versace has taken action against counterfeit goods sellers. In November 2024, they filed a complaint to protect their Intellectual Property Rights at the Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU). The DIU is a branch of the Delhi Police.
A Delhi court, based on this FIR, then passed search and seizure warrants for four retailers under Section 96 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.
6 police officers carried out raids at Royal Palace, Naveen Nayyar, Taneja House, and Fancy Trading shops across Delhi and seized various boxes of counterfeit goods.
Jasmine Hora, Manager (Brand Protection), Jotwani Associates, speaking on this, said, “Goods with a market worth of several crores of rupees were seized in the raid. The owners of the retail shops fled the scene, leaving behind their servants, so the investigations on the source of the counterfeit are still going on. We are highly thankful to the DIU officials stationed at Bara Hindu Rao Police Station for their professionalism in conducting raids.”
Read More: ResearchED: Economic Impact Of Counterfeiting In India, One Of The Top 5 Countries For Such Goods
The Secrecy Behind It
The reason for this secrecy might have a few reasons, though. One could be that the brands and the police don’t want to tip off any other sellers if they are going to be raided. Another could be to prevent regular citizens from knowing who these sellers are and potentially letting them do business, given that they must be selling the fake goods at a much lower price compared to the original, and a person just wanting to show off a branded item without spending the lakhs will not care much about where it comes from.
A third reason could be to protect the identity of these secret investigators.
Essentially, how this process goes about is that these luxury brands like Versace, Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo will hire secret investigators who, posing as regular customers, will track the shop owners, flow of goods and more. These investigators will then pass on this information to the company, who willl then take legal action against the sellers.
The identity of these secret investigators, though, is kept very much under wraps, with not even the legal teams or law enforcement agencies knowing who they are.
As per Moneycontrol’s sources, “if identity of these mystery informants is revealed, it could jeopardise their future operations.”
The brands are reportedly finding Indian agencies that “specialise in mystery shopping and spotting fake goods.” The rates of these private agencies can vary, with the payment being done on an individual tip basis and depending on how credible they are. But agencies that are good at providing solid information to these brands can earn anywhere between 5-10 lakhs per brand as per market insiders.
Karan Bhatty, founder of Millow, a background verification and due diligence company, also said, “Counterfeiting in India has moved out of roadside markets and into organised supply chains, where the same sellers, distributors and vendors surface across case after case, often operating behind shell entities and borrowed identities. Discreet market intelligence is a necessary first step, but the missing layer is rigorous due diligence on the people and firms feeding these networks, their directors, their registered addresses and their financial trails.”
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Moneycontrol, The Economic Times, CNBCTV18
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
This post is tagged under: Counterfeit Crackdown, Counterfeit Goods, Fake Fashion, fake goods, luxury brands, Luxury Counterfeits, Versace, Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo, Versace east delhi, Versace counterfeit goods
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