Luxury brands are betting big on India, and so are counterfeiters

New Delhi/Kolkata, India – A brace of achromatic Dandy Pik Pik loafers covered successful sharp, uneven spikes and shiny studs was portion of the grounds earlier Judge Pratibha M Singh successful an intellectual-property suit brought by French luxury footwear marque Christian Louboutin against an Indian footwear shaper successful a Delhi precocious tribunal past year.

Louboutin’s lawyers had already regaled the tribunal with anecdotes astir the iconic presumption of their shoes. The signature stilettos, with their luxuriant reddish soles, had starred successful movies similar The Devil Wears Prada and Sex and The City, and were registered arsenic a trademark successful India and different countries, they said.

Riding connected the brand’s reputation, the lawyers were present trying to marque the constituent that spiked shoes, too, were unsocial to Christian Louboutin, and the defendant, Shutiq – The Shoe Boutique, was manufacturing and selling their designs successful India illegally.

Incriminating grounds presented to Judge Singh included grounds from ChatGPT, saying that Christian Louboutin is known for spiked men’s shoes. Then determination were photographs of Shutiq’s 26 spiked and bedazzled shoes adjacent to Louboutin originals, including Dandy Pik Pik. The archetypal loafers retailed for astir $1,800, but their imitations were being sold by Shutiq for one-tenth the price.

The justice dismissed the ChatGPT grounds but imposed a good of $2,370 and told Shutiq that if it did not halt copying Louboutin’s designs, she would good the store $29,628.

For Louboutin, which had made $2.6m from footwear income successful India successful 2022, the wealth was paltry, but the tribunal bid was a important win.

Louboutin, similar Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Rolex, Cartier and galore different high-end planetary manner brands, is investing successful and expanding its beingness successful India – the fastest increasing marketplace for luxury brands successful Asia – adjacent arsenic these brands are spending clip and resources to instrumentality down inexpensive fakes.

“The occupation is precise serious. There are a batch of fakes [in India] of high-value, costly goods,” a elder authoritative from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying the Economy (FICCI CASCADE), an manufacture assemblage devoted to creating consciousness astir counterfeit and smuggled goods, told Al Jazeera.

A study by FICCI CASCADE has pegged the yearly nonaccomplishment successful taxes owed to counterfeits of conscionable 5 products – alcohol, tobacco, mobile phones, FMCG (fast-moving user goods, specified arsenic brushed drinks) packaged foods and idiosyncratic goods – astatine astir $7bn.

More worrisome are spurious car parts that relationship for astir 20 percent of roadworthy accidents and that 1 retired of each 3 antibiotics sold successful India is fake.

India is simply a signatory to the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) statement and has respective laws to halt the manufacture and merchantability of counterfeits and to penalise counterfeiters with fines and jailhouse terms. But determination is nary existent involvement successful warring fakes.

“Elected governments enactment connected things that get them votes,” the FICCI authoritative said. Counterfeits bash not marque the list.

Screenshot of an Instagram grip peddling fake decorator bags [Suparna Sharma/Al Jazeera]

While counterfeiting is not new, entree to fake goods has go easier with the emergence of societal media. Online sales, which got a boost during the pandemic, are present speeding up connected the backmost of the rising aspirations of Gen Z and millennials successful the world’s fastest-growing large economy.

Counterfeit luxury items person moved from stores tally by middle-aged traders successful seedy, crowded markets to swanky boutiques tally by suave, ambitious young men and women successful cities large and small. Most of these counterfeiters tally Instagram handles and person thousands of followers, a bevvy of influencers they collaborate with, and a clientele that includes immoderate of India’s apical tv stars and celebrities.

Several Bollywood stars person been called retired for flaunting fake bracelets, bags and adjacent couture gowns. Some of them are marque ambassadors of luxury brands.

According to the FICCI official, fakes tin beryllium recovered crossed astir merchandise categories, including medicine, spices, babe food, mineral water, software, cigarettes, alcohol, golden biscuits and luxury items.

The “costlier the brand, [the] much the nett margins – frankincense much duplicates, much fakes”, the authoritative said. He calls counterfeiting “a low-risk, high-profit crime” due to the fact that “the chances of being arrested are debased and penal proviso is not harsh”.

In May, Christian Louboutin was backmost successful the Delhi precocious court. Of the 26 designs it had listed successful its lawsuit, Shutiq – The Shoe Boutique was inactive manufacturing and selling nine. The lawsuit is ongoing.

Designer handbag a ‘moniker of success’

Luxury brands person leased much than 600,000 quadrate feet (55,741sq metres) of retail abstraction successful India, up 178 percent from the erstwhile year. The country’s luxury marketplace clocked gross of $17.6bn successful the fiscal twelvemonth 2024 and is expected to turn annually astatine a compounded complaint of 3.16 percent, according to information probe steadfast Statista.

That bullishness is disposable astatine Reliance Industries’s four-storey luxury mall, Jio World Plaza, successful India’s fiscal superior Mumbai, which offers a butler work and idiosyncratic shoppers.

People locomotion extracurricular a Reliance analyzable which houses the Jio World Plaza promenade successful Mumbai, India [File: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters]

But a 25-minute thrust from Reliance’s luxury haven is the Heera Panna Shopping Complex, which is listed by the United States arsenic 1 of the world’s astir “notorious markets” for counterfeit products. Most shops present connection 2 qualities of each luxury product: “first copy” oregon “AAA”, which is adjacent to the original, and a cheaper version.

Six Indian markets – 1 each successful New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, and 3 online – person made it to the US’s notorious marketplace list, including IndiaMart, an online B2B wholesale marketplace wherever everything is disposable connected order.

Al Jazeera posted a query connected IndiaMart regarding ladies’ handbags. Manufacturers were acceptable to replicate immoderate bag, shoe, wallet oregon loop if a carnal merchandise was provided to them, including from the just-concluded Paris manner week.

Al Jazeera besides received messages from a idiosyncratic who claimed to beryllium an worker of John Lewis, a concatenation of high-end section stores crossed the United Kingdom, and offered their archetypal leather bags, which are manufactured successful India, astatine a discounted rate.

India’s rising fig of millionaires and billionaires has made it the 10th wealthiest state successful the world. But the mean income of its aspirational mediate class, 31 percent of the population, is 1.3 cardinal rupees ($15,400) connected mean annually.

In a survey past year, 89 percent of respondents said they were compelled to bargain luxury counterfeits owed to “desire, affordability and societal motivations”.

“A decorator handbag is simply a moniker of success,” Paul Russell, a user behaviour scientist astatine the UK-based Luxury Academy, which trains luxury professionals, told Al Jazeera.

Fake luxury bags astatine a store successful Fancy Market, Kolkata [Suparna Sharma/Al Jazeera]

A well-crafted counterfeit luxury point tin connection the aforesaid societal currency and affectional rewards arsenic the original.

“When radical bargain a luxury item, they’re not conscionable buying a product, they’re buying into a lifestyle, they’re becoming portion of an exclusive nine – 1 that not everyone tin join. Hence the hunger for fakes,” says Russell.

It is besides a “reasonable” mode for India’s millennials and Gen Zs – expected to beryllium fractional the country’s colonisation by 2030 – to support up with fast-moving trends – “a large driving force”.

But the wealthy, too, bargain inexpensive copies, says Sanjana Gupta, who restores luxury goods astatine her store, The Leather Works.

Since she started her institution successful 2018, Gupta says her concern has grown “six- to seven-fold”, and truthful person fakes she sees successful society, she adds, recalling a Delhi-based lawsuit whose batch of 10 Chanel, Dior and Prada products had six fakes, a reasonably communal occurrence for her now.

Counterfeiters similar brands wherever logos are conspicuous and often portion of the design.

Among Gupta’s affluent clientele, she says, Chanel is the fig 1 successful fakes, followed by Louis Vuitton and Dior.

From China to Kolkata, connected $14

“Good luck karenge! [Bring maine bully luck!] You are the archetypal customer,” chirps a smiling shopkeeper successful the labyrinthine Fancy Market successful Kolkata’s old, congested Khidirpur country adjacent the sea.

It is simply a communal greeting successful this maze of tiny shops wherever you tin bargain a implicit wardrobe of luxury fakes. A Balmain bag, which retails for astir $800, sells present for $70. There are Fendi and Prada sunshades for $11.

The marketplace sells Mont Blanc and Ferrari fountain pens; Tommy Hilfiger luggage; Christian Dior totes; Chanel and Marc Jacobs backpacks; Hermes flip flops; Rolex, Tissot, Tag Heuer and Michael Kors watches; and Gucci and Versace belts. And successful the midst of French, Italian, US, Swiss and British brands, determination are bags and accessories of the astir counterfeited Indian designer, Sabyasachi.

Every counterfeit point present is billed arsenic a “mirror copy” oregon of “showroom quality”, and comes with each the frills and thrills of the original.

Ladies’ handbags, their handles wrapped successful achromatic foam, beryllium wrong a particulate screen successful a branded box. There is besides a receipt, mostly successful Mandarin, and wrong the bag, a small tag with a QR codification that tin beryllium scanned to spot merchandise details. But similar the fake bag, the QR Code is besides fake and leads nowhere.

Business is dilatory due to the fact that astir customers are online.

A ladies’ container seller enactment this newsman connected his WhatsApp radical and has been sending photos and videos of branded purses. He promises transportation successful 5 to 7 days for bulk orders.

Stores astatine Fancy Market, Kolkata, India, merchantability a scope of fake products [Suparna Sharma/Al Jazeera]

A shopkeeper, speaking connected information of anonymity, said tiny groups of counterfeiters question erstwhile oregon doubly a twelvemonth to Guangzhou successful China where, implicit a week oregon 10 days, they sojourn shops that banal counterfeits of the world’s apical brands. Three antithetic qualities of each point are disposable – archetypal copies, mid-range, which are suitable for stores and boutiques, and the cheapest prime for wide sale.

Consignments are booked with 100 Chinese yuan ($14). The receipts for those bookings are collected by the “carrier”, and the products are delivered wrong a fewer weeks. The bearer charges $10.66 per kilogramme for branded stuff, and $6-7 per kilogramme for non-branded stuff, the shopkeeper told Al Jazeera.

At the entranceway to Fancy Market is simply a constabulary booth. While constabulary officers sometimes transportation retired raids, mostly, they beryllium idle.

Lenient courts and the luxury of silence

Priya Gaekwar, who runs the luxury advisory steadfast Lighthouse Consultants, says that LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton “is astir apt the astir hardcore, the astir organised amongst the planetary brands successful warring counterfeits”.

Gaekwar, who has worked with the brand, says LVMH has a dedicated squad of lawyers and investigators who are vigilant connected the crushed and online.

Louis Vuitton has filed much than 20 trademark and counterfeit lawsuits successful India. Christian Louboutin has filed astir seven. Gucci, Cartier, Rolex, Hermes, Yves Saint Laurent and Burberry person each gone aft counterfeiters, large and small, but their victories person been short-lived.

Fighting counterfeits – whether imported oregon manufactured locally – is simply a daunting battle. Indian decorator Tarun Tahiliani says it feels similar playing whack-a-mole connected a shot tract erstwhile you are equipped lone with a precise tiny hammer.

Tahiliani had been the decorator who dressed Kim Kardashian successful a dusty peach lehenga – a accepted Indian agelong skirt that is worn with a blouse and a scarf – for an lawsuit astatine India’s richest idiosyncratic Mukesh Ambani’s lad Anant’s star-filled wedding successful July. He recalls visiting Delhi’s Chandni Chowk marketplace a fewer years ago. The crowded, bustling country is known for knock-offs of decorator bridal wear.

“Someone tried to merchantability maine a Tarun Tahiliani bridal ensemble … It really happened,” helium says, laughing astatine the representation of sitting successful a store and watching salesmen locomotion up and down a ramp preening and holding knockoffs of his decorator lehengas to their waist. “It was fascinating.”

He has not bothered to writer due to the fact that the past clip helium filed a case, it went connected for 7 years. “By the clip the lawsuit came to trial, the [witness] had died … it was excessively acold gone. We conscionable settled. Fashion changes precise fast. So the champion happening is to fto radical cognize that you’re going to spell aft them, but you can’t truly bash much,” Tahiliani said.

Fines are modest, and jailhouse presumption are usually conscionable a fewer months. “Fear is lacking, truthful deterrence is not there,” helium said.

Knock-offs of Indian decorator Tarun Tahiliani’s lehengas are easy disposable [File: Manish Swarup/AP Photo]

While immoderate luxury brands instrumentality utmost measures, similar burning their surplus banal worthy millions of dollars, to debar their merchandise from entering the grey market, the occupation of their designs being counterfeited is not thing they privation publicised.

“Brands don’t privation the communicative to displacement from their latest postulation oregon philanthropic efforts to a little flattering absorption connected however they are warring counterfeiters,” Russell said.

Al Jazeera reached retired to Christian Louboutin, Louis Vuitton and Ambani’s Reliance Brands Limited – which has the India licences for Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta and Coach, among others – for comment. All 3 declined. Hermes and Burberry did not respond.

Fake sites and kid pornography

Criminal lawyer-turned-counterfeit-buster Dhirendra Singh, with his muscular assemblage and bald head, looks similar the main of a commando unit. He chuckles arsenic helium recalls a caller bust.

“There was this couple, this husband-wife duo – erstwhile we started investigating them, we called them ‘Bunty and Babli’,” helium says, referring to a fashionable Bollywood movie astir a mates that pulls disconnected audacious cons.

On their Instagram account, the mates would advertise discounted income of “branded apparel” successful a banquet hallway of a five-star edifice located successful respective cities, moving up income of $100,000 to $200,000 successful each city.

When Singh and the constabulary yet caught the mates successful a municipality adjacent Delhi, counterfeits of garments from respective brands, including US Polo, Benetton, Adidas, Tommy Hilfiger, Nike and Puma, were confiscated.

Dhirendra Singh has received aggregate threats and sustained respective breached bones from counterfeiters helium is retired to unopen down [Courtesy Dhirendra Singh]

Singh, the CEO of Brand Protectors India, says that “filing civilian suits nether the civilian instrumentality is simply a toothless exercise”. He prefers what helium calls “direct raid action”.

In “criminal raid actions”, the counterfeiters are arrested and counterfeit goods seized. “Now, that’s a dormant nonaccomplishment for a counterfeiter moving into [hundreds of thousands] of rupees. Counterfeiters are precise astute people. If a marque has a zero-tolerance argumentation against duplicates and aggressively carries retired raids, counterfeiters displacement brands,” helium adds.

Raids necessitate months of readying and coordination with section constabulary and courts successful secrecy, and they tin beryllium rough. Singh, who has conducted much than 2,300 raids connected counterfeiters truthful far, has been offered bribes, stabbed aggregate times and had his vertebrae, tibia, shoulders and hep associated broken.

And, helium says, conscionable arsenic helium watches counterfeiters, they support an oculus connected him.

“Would you judge that fractional of the subscribers connected our YouTube transmission are counterfeiters?”

Every year, during India’s four-month-long festive season, which begins successful September and coincides with the wedding season, determination is simply a large uptick successful the request and merchantability of counterfeit luxury brands.

“[Online] income are similar the breadstuff and food for counterfeiters. That’s erstwhile you person a precocious percent of fake products being sold,” says Vikas Jain, laminitis and CEO of Acviss, a Bangalore-based tech institution that provides marque extortion and anti-counterfeiting solutions to companies selling luxury and different products.

Counterfeiters usage dense discounts and income – similar “the large festive sale”, “anniversary sale” and “season sale” – arsenic enticing bait.

Feeding disconnected the increasing tendency for branded, luxury goods, scammers, too, person entered the fray with fake sites that person domain names that dependable authentic (like Balenciaga-india.com) and merchantability heavy discounted “originals”.

A fewer months ago, Singh was attempting to bargain a brace of Yonex badminton shoes from a fake website helium was investigating. During the transaction, helium received a telephone from the slope informing him that the transaction was being routed done a kid pornographic website.

“It’s a caput game. Customers, portion waiting for shoes, volition get a measure from a kid pornographic site. Who volition spell to the constabulary to complain? Most radical volition conscionable support quiet.”

And adjacent if they are reported, counterfeiters person learned however to circumvent algorithms and ineligible traps.

Dupes, influencers and Bollywood clients

Mohit (not his existent name), a bearded antheral successful his 30s, is the proprietor of a tiny boutique successful a middle-class neighbourhood successful Delhi, which sells fakes of “trending” luxury items. He besides runs a fashionable Instagram grip and advertises the latest Balmain and Amiri jackets, Armani and Louboutin shoes, Dolce & Gabbana slippers, Gucci jeans and Chanel dresses to his 127,000 followers, often uploading 7 to 8 reels a day.

Screenshot of an Instagram grip peddling fake decorator shoes [Suparna Sharma/Al Jazeera]

After his Instagram grip was reported for peddling fakes aggregate times, helium learned to enactment his mode astir the platform’s algorithm.

All the hashtags – #cheap, #original, #AAA, #1:1 – which had brought him customers, person been dropped. Instead, successful his videos, helium unboxes items for merchantability and shows the logo repeatedly, but does not notation the brand. The substance that appears connected his reel usually is “100% OG”, abbreviated for original, adjacent to the terms and a WhatsApp number.

In India, societal media influencers person important sway implicit people’s buying decisions, aggregate surveys person found. It is acknowledgment to specified selling tactics and “dupes” – oregon duplicates – that luxury fakes present person their ain ecosystem of counterfeiter influencers.

One of the celebrities Mohit collaborates with is simply a fashionable contestant of Big Boss, an Indian world show. With his 2 wives, the antheral has 21 cardinal followers connected Instagram. The household regularly flaunts a lavish manner to their followers, replete with luxury cars and dressed successful fake branded apparel and shoes they got from Mohit’s store.

Mohit besides claims to person a agelong database of Bollywood clientele. He showed Al Jazeera photos connected his telephone of immoderate of India’s apical tv stars wearing jackets, sweatshirts and shredded jeans that helium had sent them.

“I don’t cognize if they cognize that these are copies. I woody with their managers mostly,” helium said.