American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) has filed a lawsuit against e-commerce giant Amazon, accusing the company of infringing on its Aerie and Offline by Aerie trademarks. The lawsuit, filed this week in Manhattan federal court, alleges that Amazon deliberately misled shoppers by using Aerie branding in sponsored ads and search results to direct customers to counterfeit products.
The clothing retailer claims Amazon used “flagrant, unauthorised use” of its trademark to deceive consumers into believing genuine Aerie products were available on the platform. According to the complaint, clicking on these misleading links leads shoppers to pages displaying only “knock-offs and ‘dupes'” of Aerie merchandise.
American Eagle states it had previously declined Amazon’s request to sell Aerie products on its site, preferring to maintain control over the brand’s identity and customer experience. The company asserts it notified Amazon of the alleged infringement over a month ago but claims the e-commerce platform responded by relabeling products with misspellings like “Aeries” and “Aries.”
The lawsuit seeks an injunction to halt further trademark infringement, as well as financial damages. American Eagle argues that Amazon’s actions have caused confusion among consumers and potentially damaged the Aerie brand’s reputation by associating it with inferior quality merchandise.
This lawsuit is not the first of its kind against Amazon. The e-commerce giant has faced similar complaints for years regarding counterfeit products on its platform. In 2016, German shoemaker Birkenstock announced it would pull its products from Amazon due to a surge in counterfeits. That same year, German automaker Daimler AG sued Amazon after discovering knock-off versions of Mercedes-Benz wheels sold by a third-party seller.
These incidents led to the company adding a warning about the threat of third-party sellers peddling counterfeits to the “risk factors” section of its annual financial filing in 2019. Since then, Amazon has increased its efforts to combat counterfeits, including launching teams to pursue criminal action against counterfeiters and developing tools to help brands protect their trademarks.