Louis Vuitton rejected mediation against Carrefour in a the first high profile dispute between two Western companies in China, read more here.
Ben Moshinsky wrote in the article for The Lawyer named Carrefour Fined in China Piracy Case that a Shanghai court has fined Carrefour £25,000 for selling fake Louis Vuitton handbags.
Moshinsky wrote: “Chief Judge Shen Zhi Xian presided over the case and issued a rare, non-binding judicial directive along with his judgment. The directive expressed personal views of the judge and requested that Carrefour change its purchasing policy.“
The judge was referring to the policy whereby the purchasing was completely delegated to the branch manager, without sufficient supervision on IPR by the central management.
Fangda Law advised Louis Vuitton.
Shanghai firm Jing Hong advised Carrefour.
Douglas Clark, Lovells IP partner in Shanghai, made clear that Carrefour is not an exception: “A large number of foreign retailers in China, such as B&Q and WalMart, are all running the risk of purchasing counterfeits unintentionally and then selling them if they don’t put in supplier integrity checks.“
Read Moshinsky’s article here.
