Amazon and BMW have emerged victorious in a lawsuit in Spain after uncovering four sellers peddling counterfeit BMW parts and accessories across Europe.
The lawsuit was originally filed in October 2023 and involved Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) that attempts to shut down bad actors like these. The four stores had been selling products including tire valve caps, badges, and key rings with the BMW logo, despite not being official products from the German carmaker.
The sellers were taken to court in the Spanish Community Trade Mark Court located in Alicante, Spain, where European Union regulations are enforced.
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“When Amazon and BMW Group both contribute their investigative capabilities, experience, and technological resources to jointly identify and target counterfeiters, we are very effective and successful in our fight against bad actors,” head of Intellectual Property Law, Trademarks, and Designs at BMW Group Dr. Jochen Volkmer said.
“We are proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish together so far to keep customers safe from bad actors and are motivated to continue to work closely together to achieve a lasting impact. We are looking forward to continuing our collaboration.”
Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit collaborates with various companies to crack down on those selling counterfeit goods. Last year, it partnered with brands such as Brother, Canon, YETI Coolers, Cisco, Therabody, and others to file individual lawsuits against retailers peddling fake products.
In 2023, a Florida man pleaded guilty to crimes related to the sale of counterfeit Cisco products on Amazon and other stores across the retail industry. He agreed to forfeit $15 million and faces four to six and a half years in prison. The man ran numerous separate companies and dozens of online storefronts that imported thousands of counterfeit Cisco products and sold them in the U.S., generating millions of dollars in sales.