Levi's Sues Premier Brands Group Over ‘Large-Scale Counterfeit Trafficking Operation'

Yahoo

08-05-2025

Denim giant Levi Strauss & Co. (LS&Co.) has accused New York-based Premier Brands Group (PBG) of orchestrating 'a large-scale counterfeit trafficking operation,' in turn infringing on more than a dozen of its trademarks.
According to the denim brand, PBG, its CEO Alan Chartash and a variety of Doe defendants—unknown individuals who allegedly took part in the counterfeiting scheme—knowingly bought and sold fake products.
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'Defendants purchased, marketed, resold and trafficked over 90,000 counterfeit 'Levi's'-branded products sourced from known counterfeit producers with no reasonable basis to believe that such products might be genuine,' Levi's said in its complaint.
PBG, based in New York, absorbs excess inventory from global brands to resell to consumers.
Levi's stated that the products allegedly sold by PBG 'were of exceeding low quality' and stated that some of the products bore 'obvious errors' that should have indicated their status as counterfeits.
'Certain of the counterfeit products themselves contained a basic error in the spelling of 'San Francisco,' making it 'Sans' or without Francisco, such that no reasonable person—let alone defendants who claim to have decades of industry experience—would have believed that the products were genuine,' Levi's wrote in the complaint.
Those types of errors, Levi's claimed, negatively impacted its goodwill and reputation with consumers, who have come to expect a certain standard of quality from the legacy brand.
That the products allegedly had such errors, Levi's said, shows that PBG willfully perpetuated a counterfeit scheme. But the errors on the alleged counterfeits aren't the only reason that Levi's believes PBG carried out its actions willfully and with knowledge.
'Defendants also trafficked in forged letters purported to come from LS&Co. Representatives, and which also counterfeited LS&Co.'s trademarks and purported to authenticate as genuine and authorize the further resale of these counterfeit products,' Levi's alleged, noting that some of these letters helped PBG 'accomplish their counterfeit trafficking scheme, despite the fact that these letters were obviously fake on their face.'
Though the letters allegedly tried to show a connection between Levi's and PBG, the denim giant noted that it has no such agreement with the redistribution company.
'PBG is not a partner with LS&Co. Instead, PBG sources counterfeit products branded with the LS&Co. Trademarks from known counterfeit sources and then resells them to unsuspecting buyers, who purchase the counterfeits rather than genuine products,' the company alleges in its complaint.
As a result of PBG's alleged actions, Levi's claimed that it has lost out on 'millions of dollars' in sales of its own products.
It has accused PBG of federal trademark counterfeiting, federal trademark infringement, federal trademark dilution and other offenses.
As such, Levi's has asked a judge for a preliminary and permanent injunction that would prohibit PBG, Chartash and the Doe defendants from 'further acts of counterfeiting, infringement, dilution and/or unfair competition with respect to LS&Co. And the LS&Co. trademarks.'
It has also requested that a judge require PBG to 'deliver for destruction any and all products in [its] possession that counterfeit or otherwise infringe or dilute the LS&Co. trademarks' and made it clear that it will seek actual damages for any profits that PBG made off its allegedly illegal conduct at Levi's expense.
Federal court records show that Premier Brands Group has not yet responded to the denim brand's complaint. PBG did not immediately return Sourcing Journal's request for comment on the lawsuit.