Delist Counterfeit Goods Sellers & Share Their Details: Delhi HC Directs Amazon [Read Order]

The Delhi High Court has directed online shopping giant Amazon to delist sellers selling counterfeit products of lifestyle brand Beverly Hills Polo Club on its platform.

Noting that the balance of convenience rested in the plaintiff’s favour, Justice Jayant Nath directed, “Plaintiff has made out a prima facie case. Balance of convenience is in favour of the plaintiff. The defendant shall remove forthwith from its platform any URLs which are pointed out by the plaintiff which are selling products in violation of the plaintiff’s right.”

The order was issued on a complaint filed by Beverly Hills, claiming that counterfeit products including apparel products, accessories, fragrance products, watches belts etc. were being sold on Amazon.

Beverly Hills had pointed out that it does not sell any of its products, except for perfumes, on online sales platforms. Therefore, on coming to know of such products being sold online, it issued a cease and desist notice to Amazon in December last year to take down the URLs and disclose the name and contact details of the suppliers of these counterfeit products. Amazon, however, refused to share the details of the manufacturers but deleted the relevant URLs.

The plaintiff further told the court that if one of the URLs is removed, a fresh link springs up on Amazon to sell such counterfeit products. In order to handle this, the Court directed Amazon to provide all information in its possession on the person uploading these URLs.

Taking all the concerns into consideration, the Court further ordered, “Accordingly, keeping in view these facts and circumstances of the case a direction is passed to the defendants to give all details and information to the extent of such information is in its possession about the identity of the person who has uploaded the URLs which are advertising sale of counterfeit products using the trademark of the plaintiff illegally. The defendant shall also remove the URLs of the products listed at pages 1 to 10 of the documents filed by the plaintiff. Defendant will also give information about the URLs for which a communication has been sent to the defendant earlier also.”

The matter has now been listed on 18 September.