In a major legal victory for Montblanc Simplo GmbH, the German manufacturer of luxury writing instruments, the Delhi High Court has restrained an e-commerce platform from manufacturing, selling, advertising, directly or indirectly dealing in writing instruments, wallets, watches, leather goods, jewellery or any other goods bearing the trademark of the company.

Advocate Pravin Anand, appearing on behalf of Montblanc, alleged the portal was selling fake products of its premier collections at a lower price. The counsel said due to sale of the counterfeit products from various collections and range, the company had suffered loss in business and also loosing of reputation and image and confidence and trust of their client.

It was in July 2013 that the German manufacturer came to know through its Indian sales unit that a Chandigarh-based ecommerce site with the domain name digaaz.com was selling counterfeit products at a discounted rate of 75 per cent.

Discrepancies

The company also sought damages worth Rs 20,05,000, which were however, denied by the court that observed that it could not prove the extent of actual damages they suffered due to this.

To nail the act, the company purchased the writing instrument from the portal and examined it. It found out that the price of original MEISTERSTUCK CLASSIQUE that cost around Rs 30,000 was being sold at Rs 6,860.

It pointed out that there were several discrepancies in the look of the product like difference in the colour combination, inferior quality being used. It said that even the trademarks were infringed.

Montblanc and Louis Vuitton moved Delhi High Court in 2014 to restrain it from selling their products. In its order, the court took cognizance of the numerous consumer complaints and allegations of fraud against the portal and granted interim injunction in favour of Mont Blanc and Louis Vuitton.

The court also directed the registrar of the domain name digaaz.com and the internet service provider providing hosting services to the website to suspend the domain name and the website, respectively.

After several complaints from the customers, the cyber crime cell of Chandigarh Police in 2014 filed an FIR under Section 406,420 IPC & 66 AIT Act of PS-39. The police had also seized good number of counterfeit products from the portal and also arrested the directors of the portal.

Previous cases

Earlier, several other brands such as Hermes, Cartier and Gucci have also earlier resorted to legal recourse to protect their brands from cheap lookalikes. A fashion insider said, "A lot of fakes are linked to underground mafia which is related to terrorism, women and child trafficking. It is not as harmless as it seems."

According to an Assocham, the fake luxury goods market in India is reportedly increasing at a rate of 40-45 per cent annually. The industry body noted that web shopping portals account for over 25 per cent of the fake luxury goods market in India. Handbags, watches, sunglasses, perfumes and cosmetics are the most imitated products and come largely from China.