Gucci and Facebook filed a joint lawsuit in California this month against a counterfeiter.
Facebook, Inc. and Gucci America, Inc. v. Natalia Kokhtenko, 3:21-cv-03036 (N.D. Cal.)
This lawsuit was covered by the media and is said to be the first of its kind [a suit for trademark infringement and trademark counterfeiting] by both companies to crack down against online sellers of counterfeit goods.
Natalia Kokhtenko is based in Russia and operates numerous websites to allegedly sell counterfeit brand label designer brand label goods, in particular Gucci. The websites use the extension “.ru” to indicate Russia (9brends-msk.ru, luxprimer.ru are examples).
Kokhtenko promotes the sale of counterfeit goods on Facebook and Instagram and by doing so violates the social media’s terms of service and their prohibition against “that infringes or violates someone else’s rights, including their intellectual property rights . . .”