Louis Vuitton fights over originality of shoes

By Espinosa Bellido Abogados

In November 2020 a Peruvian citizen traveling from United States was retained by Peru’s Customs authority (Sunat) at Lima’s international airport for carrying six pairs of brand new Louis Vuitton men and women shoes and sandals.

Although he did not had any bills nor receipts to prove the original and authorized purchase of the goods, the citizen stated that he bought the footwear as family gifts at the Louis Vuitton store located on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Aware of the case, the French house requested to inspect the seized shoes to verify their supposed originality. After the results stated that all six pairs were counterfeited, Louis Vuitton filed a trademark infringement complaint at the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi), arguing that the footwear was intended for commercialization.

The citizen received from Indecopi a penalty fine due to damaged business reputation and lost sales. However, he appealed the decision and proved to have purchased the goods at an official Louis Vuitton store. Indecopi also stated that the results from the inspection were not conclusive as the testing failed to follow the correct methods to verify the authenticity of a Louis Vuitton product.

The case is now at an Administrative Court of Lima, as Louis Vuitton asked the partial annulment of Indecopi's second instance decision that ordered the company to assume all legal costs of the defendant.