A wave of counterfeit Christian Louboutin shoes sweeps across Austria – pirate manufacturers attack Louboutin.
Thanks not least to the latest big-screen instalment of “Sex and the City”, shoes made by French designer Christian Louboutin are the talk of the town and already on the shopping lists of a host of women.
Suppliers of counterfeit brand shoes, however, are taking advantage. Via websites they offer supposedly original shoes – such as those designed by Christian Louboutin – at reduced prices that nevertheless cost hundreds of Euros. Customers then take delivery of the fake and extremely cheaply made footwear, in which walking and sometimes even standing are impossible.
The EU Product Piracy Regulation enables owners of trademarks to have such counterfeit goods stopped at EU borders. Christian Louboutin follows a policy of zero tolerance with regard to brand counterfeits and to this end commissioned trademark law expert Constantin Kletzer of the law firm Fiebinger Polak Leon Attorneys-at-Law to tackle the problem in Austria. “Almost every day we track multiple seizures of fake Christian Louboutin shoes, which are ordered online by individuals in Austria.
Cheap imitations come predominantly from China and they are caught at the border by customs. In the worst case, buyers receive no goods at all, leaving them hoping for a gesture of goodwill from their credit card company.”
“For this reason, as well as the poor quality of the imitations, Christian Louboutin sees no other option than to confront this practice and request the publishers of exclusive fashion magazines to warn their readers about supposed bargains.”
With this in mind Christian Louboutin has even set up a dedicated website – www.stopfakechristianlouboutin.com – which contains details of the anti-counterfeit programme and a list of all of the websites currently known to be selling fake goods carrying the Christian Louboutin label.
Original Christian Louboutin products can be purchased in Austria at 2006FEB01, Plankengasse 3, 1010 Vienna, www.2006feb01.com or via www.net-a-porter.com.