Italian clothing brand Diesel is taking global action against counterfeiting.
The decision was taken few years ago as part of the radical change to revise and implement its distribution strategy, cutting wholesale accounts that were not in line with most popular clothing brands.
Regarding e-commerce and digital retail, the company’s main objective has been to block and shut down websites that promote the sale of counterfeit items using the brand's trademarks, logos and imagery.
In 2019, multiple worldwide actions were taken to protect the brand, including in the digital space. It was discovered that on social media, 2 351 URLs were selling fake products and were removed (the majority of these on Instagram).
Also last year, a total of 1 244 sites were penalized (with content and product removed, or the site taken offline entirely). Most actions were targeted at Taobao (China), Mercado Libre (Brazil) and eBay (worldwide), with a total of 2 838 cases of copyright and trademark infringements.
Other important actions were conducted with the aid of local law and police authorities in Egypt and in Morocco for more illegal products (over 5 000 pairs of jeans in Morocco, for example), while in the UAE more than 8 000 pairs of sunglasses were seized.
In Turkey 23 704 fake pieces were located, in the UK 5 823 polo shirts, and in Portugal 1 796 other fake DIESEL products such as belts, T-shirts, perfumes, denim jeans and clothing labels.
Also in South Africa, police seize arms cache, counterfeit goods during the Joburg CBD raid last year. In a building called Medical One on Rahima Moosa Street, boxes and tons of clothes, bags, shoes and guns were found stored in three floors.