A Singaporean man who sold fake Louis Vuitton goods over Instagram has been ordered to pay the French luxury brand S$200,000 in damages.
According to a High Court judgement dated 2 July, Mr Ng Hoe Seng passed off the goods as genuine and sold them for significantly cheaper prices on the social media platform.
Some of the fake goods that were offered for sale. Source: elitigation.sg
Mr Ng operated an online store named EMCASE IG with the Instagram username @emcase_sg, which had around 16,100 followers, read the judgement by Justice Dedar Singh Gill.
He advertised and offered goods such as mobile phone cases, watch straps, purses, pouches, wallets, passport cases, key cases, and card cases.
On the products were designs identical to one or more Louis Vuitton registered trademarks, affixed without the brand’s consent.
Some of the fake goods that were offered for sale. Source: elitigation.sg
He also indicated on the account that the products were “upcycled goods” derived from “authentic” Louis Vuitton products.
The goods were offered at prices much lower than the real products — for example, a fake passport cover would be priced at S$159, while the real thing would cost S$560 to S$945.
Source: elitigation.sg
When Louis Vuitton Malletier (LVM), the owner of the trademark, discovered this around July 2022, it decided to catch him in the act.
It got a representative to order 12 items from @emcase_sg for S$2,100.
A screenshot of the conversation showed that the account described the products as “LV”, as though they were actually from Louis Vuitton.
Source: elitigation.sg
LVM issued a cease-and-desist letter on 21 March 2023, and the store ceased registration on 26 April 2023. The EMCASE IG Page became inactive in May 2023.
However, Mr Ng started another Instagram page with the username @emcrafts_sg.
The new EMCRAFTS IG page had around 17,100 followers as of May 2023. There, he continued to advertise and offer fake Louis Vuitton goods, claiming they were “100% authentic”.
A screenshot showed a post that contained a message from “Emma” alleging that the products were upcycled, saying, “Every material we use is sourced from independent secondary market sources with authenticity guaranteed and verified through a 3rd party authenticator.”
Source: elitigation.sg
Mr Ng also reposted Instagram Stories where customers gave rave reviews of their purchases.
Source: elitigation.sg
Some posts showed customers referring to the “LV design” and saying that the item is “made from authentic LV leather” or “authentic LV skin”.
Source: elitigation.sg
This was a way of promoting his products, Justice Gill said, adding:
In my view, this has the effect of compounding the defendant’s false representations, since it reinforces the message that the Offending Goods were the claimant’s authentic products.
Source: elitigation.sg
Additionally, Mr Ng would use a circle of influencers, which he termed his “EmCollabFam”, to promote his products.
Source: elitigation.sg
They would post about the products in Instagram Stories on the EMCRAFTS IG page.
Source: elitigation.sg
The judge said these influencers would “propagate the misrepresentation about his ‘authentic’ products more widely to his followers and the public at large”.
LVM thus told its representative to catch Mr Ng in the act again by making another purchase of his products.
The representative racked up an order of S$471, adding another item from a different brand to avoid suspicion.
LVM also gathered evidence that showed Mr Ng had continued offering fake Louis Vuitton goods for sale till May 2024.
LVM sued Mr Ng for trade mark infringement on 15 August 2023.
However, he did not take part in the legal proceedings, opting not to file a notice of intention to contest or not contest.
He also failed to show up in court throughout the entire course of the proceedings and did not engage any lawyers to represent him.
Justice Gill criticised Mr Ng’s refusal to take part, saying this deprived LVM of “an opportunity to discover the full extent of his infringement to prosecute its claim and quantify its losses”.
The judge added:
A strong message needs to be sent to the defendant that he may be able to run from the claimant, but he will not be able to hide from the long arms of the law. The defendant has shown himself to be a recalcitrant infringer, and he will need to face the consequences accordingly.
Accordingly, he awarded LVM damages of S$200,000.
Despite the win, it is unclear how LVM can receive the damages.
While the two Instagram accounts have been deactivated, checks on the platform show that an account with the username @emcrafts.sg now exists.
The private account says that its old account is closed and urges netizens to follow this new one. It also claims to be a small business with products made from “100% authentic vintage bags”.
Source: @emcrafts.sg on Instagram
It currently has 795 followers at the time of writing.
Also read: ICA Foils Plans To Smuggle Counterfeit Goods At Tuas Port, Fake Brands Include LV & Gucci
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Featured image adapted from elitigation.sg.