What:
Today, Amazon and KF Beauty jointly filed a lawsuit against four companies and 16 individuals for counterfeiting KF Beauty’s award-winning WUNDER2 beauty products – including WUNDERBROW – and offering the infringing products for sale in Amazon’s stores, in violation of Amazon’s policies and KF Beauty’s intellectual property rights and various trademarks.

The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington and alleges the defendants conspired and operated in concert with each other to counterfeit KF Beauty’s products. The defendants operated a shell company in Wyoming and at least one of the individual defendants was identified as residing in Shenzhen, China. If the defendants are found liable and a judgement is collected, KF Beauty will receive the proceeds. Amazon refunded the purchases of all customers who received counterfeit KF Beauty products.

KF Beauty goes to great lengths to protect consumers from counterfeits of its products, and is committed to leading efforts to combat counterfeit products. This includes being among the more than 350,000 brands to enroll in Brand Registry, a free service that gives rights owners access to a powerful set of tools that helps them manage and protect their brand and intellectual property rights and report potentially infringing products.

Amazon strictly prohibits counterfeit products in its stores and in 2019 alone, invested more than $500 million to protect customers and brands from fraud, abuse, and counterfeit. As a result of its efforts, 99.9% of all products viewed by customers on Amazon have not received a valid counterfeit complaint. In June 2020, Amazon launched its Counterfeit Crime Unit (CCU), a global team with specialized experience in investigating and bringing legal action against bad actors. The Amazon CCU works with brands, as it did here with KF Beauty, and supports law enforcement as they pursue counterfeiters.

These actions follow June’s joint lawsuit with Maison Valentino against counterfeiters of Valentino’s iconic Valentino Garavani Rockstud Shoes, who offered the infringing products for sale in violation of Amazon’s policies and Valentino’s intellectual property rights.

Statement, attributable to Amazon:
“The majority of sellers in our store are law-abiding entrepreneurs, but we will take aggressive action to protect customers, brands, and our store from counterfeiters. Amazon and KF Beauty are holding these companies and individuals accountable and we appreciate the close cooperation we’ve had in this investigation,” said Cristina Posa, Associate General Counsel and Director, Amazon Counterfeit Crimes Unit.

Statement, attributable to KF Beauty:
‘’It is of paramount importance that our customers can purchase KF Beauty cosmetics with confidence, knowing that they will always receive authentic, high-quality products. Our closely monitored and regulated processes – from product development to manufacturing to distribution – are put in place to ensure customers receive carefully controlled products that meet the highest standards. We greatly appreciate our close relationship with Amazon as a responsible trading partner, and their support in this matter has allowed KF Beauty to protect our WUNDER2 brand, our products and our joint customers, delivering on our promise of putting our customers first,” said Agnes Hjelmer, CEO of KF Beauty.

Additional Background:
You can see the court filing here:

  • Case: 2:20-cv-01217, United States District Court for the Western District of Washington

Amazon has an extensive history of protecting brands and their IP: