A US federal judge has ordered the owners of a Georgia shopping centre to pay Louis Vuitton $584 million in damages, one of the largest-ever penalties tied to the sale of counterfeit goods.
Louis Vuitton sued Westgate shopping mall owner Basirou Kebbay and chief executive Aaron Kebe in April 2023, alleging that the retail facility hosted an indoor flea market where counterfeit goods were sold on a vast scale. In August 2021, 18 tractor trailers containing over 250,000 counterfeits were seized by law enforcement agencies at Westgate, with 72,000 of those items bearing Louis Vuitton trademarks, according to the judgment.
The filing described the seizure as “one of the largest seizures of goods bearing counterfeit Louis Vuitton Trademarks in U.S. history.”
The ruling, from the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, was issued on Sept. 22 and first reported by The Fashion Law.
According to The Fashion Law, Louis Vuitton’s victory is one of the largest to ever be awarded in a US counterfeit goods case, exceeding a $144.2 million judgement awarded to Gucci against online counterfeiters in 2013.
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