Estée Lauder sues Walmart for selling counterfeit beauty products

　　Estée Lauder has filed a lawsuit in federal court in California, accusing Walmart of selling counterfeit beauty products on its website and failing to take adequate measures to ensure that only authorized and genuine merchandise is provided to consumers.

　　According to lawsuit documents filed on Monday, Estée Lauder stated that it had purchased, inspected, or tested several products sold on Walmart’s website bearing trademarks such as Le Labo, La Mer, Clinique, Aveda, Tom Ford, and “Estée Lauder,” and determined that these products were all counterfeit.

　　These items include counterfeits of Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Serum, Le Labo perfumes, Clinique eye creams, La Mer lotions, Aveda hairbrushes, and Tom Ford perfumes.

　　Although these products were sold by third-party vendors on Walmart’s online platform, Estée Lauder stated that Walmart played an active role in facilitating these sales. The long-established beauty company described Walmart’s conduct as “extreme, outrageous, fraudulent... despicable and harmful.”

　　The complaint states that these counterfeit products were promoted and advertised on Walmart’s platform, with Estée Lauder’s trademarks used for search engine optimization tools to drive traffic to the product pages, from which Walmart profited.

　　In addition, the lawsuit points out, “Consumers shopping on Walmart’s website have reason to believe that Walmart, rather than the third-party sellers, is the seller of the goods,” which could lead to consumer confusion.

　　In the complaint, Estée Lauder alleges that while Walmart promotes the “reputation and expertise” of vendors authorized to operate on its platform, it “has taken virtually no measures to ensure that only authorized genuine products are sold on the platform.”

　　The complaint notes: “Given that the defendant claims to have a very stringent selection process for sellers/partners on its platform, it is evident that counterfeit products are still allowed to be sold on its website.” “Therefore, the defendant knew or had reason to know that the sellers it collaborates with and ‘routinely reviews’ are selling products that infringe Estée Lauder’s trademark rights.”

Editor in charge: Yu Jian SF069