Investigators the company hired didn’t do their job.
Gucci is among the western brands that have brought suit in China against players in China’s multibillion dollar counterfeiting industry, attempting to control fake eyewear coming out of the country, reports the New York Times. To combat piracy, Gucci hired private investigators in China but, in an outcome that has become distressingly common, the Chinese investigators didn’t do the job they had promised (and were paid) to do, causing the company to lose a lawsuit it had filed. Writes the Times: “In court, Gucci presented copies of government documents that appeared to sanction a firm for making thousands of counterfeit eyeglasses. But when court officials went to verify those records, they discovered the documents were ‘inauthentic,’ according to a copy of the verdict. Gucci declined to comment on the case.” Not good, but could have been worse. In a different case described in the story, a private investigator hired by a non-eyewear consumer goods company to stamp out piracy of its products opened four factories producing counterfeit versions of the very products he was supposed to be protecting. (Sigh.)
Read more at New York Times
