Live Nation subsidiary Merch Traffic files a trademark lawsuit against an anonymous group of online sellers with allegations of counterfeiting.
Live Nation Entertainment subsidiary Merch Traffic, LLC, has filed a lawsuit against a group of anonymous online sellers overseas, alleging they sold counterfeit merchandise for numerous artists for whom Merch Traffic is the exclusive U.S. licensing agent.
However, unlike typical concert-venue bootleg lawsuits, this action specifically targets online storefronts that operate primarily in jurisdictions with lax enforcement, which deceive consumers into buying fake merch.
Filed on August 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the lawsuit names a set of e-commerce operators identified in a “Schedule A” list attached to the filing, which Merch Traffic says use seller aliases to obfuscate their identities.
The complaint states that the defendants operate from the People’s Republic of China or “other foreign jurisdictions with lax trademark enforcement systems.” These sellers design their stores to deliberately appear to “unknowing consumers to be authorized online retailers, outlet stores, or wholesalers.”
According to Merch Traffic, it is the exclusive U.S. licensing agent for music acts that include Avenged Sevenfold, Bruno Mars, Eazy-E, Harry Styles, Nirvana, The Notorious B.I.G., and The Cure. The company is seeking injunctive relief, an accounting of the sellers’ profits, and up to triple damages for trademark infringement. Alternatively, it asks for statutory damages of $2 million for each counterfeit trademark—the maximum for willful counterfeiting under United States law.
So how exactly do you sue anonymous sellers abroad? Merch Traffic’s action also requests court orders directing major third-party platforms—including Amazon, eBay, PayPal, Temu, and Walmart—to disable the defendants’ listings, advertisements, and store pages. Such action could effectively choke off crucial points of distribution for the defendants.
Merch Traffic’s lawsuit also claims that counterfeiters “maintain off-shore bank accounts and regularly move funds from their financial accounts to off-shore accounts outside the jurisdiction of this Court to avoid payment of any monetary judgment.”
The case is just the latest in a slew of efforts to combat counterfeiting across the music industry. Merch Traffic previously filed a trademark lawsuit on behalf of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band back in April. However, this one is a little different in that it targets sellers overseas and asks major platforms to play a part in cutting off the supply.
