Volkswagen Group of America Lawsuit | Sellers Sued Over Counterfeit Audi Goods

Volkswagen Group of America (also known as Volkswagen or VW) has filed a counterfeit/trademark infringement action in federal court. This lawsuit is taking aim at a group of online sellers, who VW says sold counterfeit Audi goods to consumers in the United States. It’s the Plaintiff’s mission, so to speak, to determine that the Defendants have acted unlawfully. And, in doing so, VW wants to also show that the unlawful activity of the sellers is collective in nature. Let’s examine how and why Volkswagen is suing sellers over counterfeit Audi products.

What can happen, off the bat, with trademark infringement lawsuits is that sellers may experience frustration. That’s totally normal and expected! At Stockman & Poropat, PLLC, we are uncommonly familiar with the type of disruption caused by intellectual property infringement cases. Which is exactly why we place a great deal of importance maintaining an open, friendly line of communication with our clients. Our team knows just what it takes to develop an actionable, creative legal strategy for all manner of online sellers. Feeling stuck or defeated or just overall uncertain? Stockman & Poropat, PLLC is an award-winning law firm that can help! 

Are the named sellers in this latest Volkswagen trademark action permitted to deal with the Plaintiff without an attorney! Absolutely, that’s always an option for affected e-commerce operators. That being said, sellers may want to consider the implications and/or probable outcome of such an endeavor. Those Defendants who don’t have an attorney on their side could end up losing a significant amount of funds. The average settlement percentage, when reached directly between sellers and brands suing them, is about 60%. Not exactly ideal! For those Defendants keen on pursuing a healthier outcome, you can count on our team at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC. 

What Options Do E-Commerce Operators Have?

We’ve mentioned that average direct settlement amounts in these cases hover at 60% or thereabouts. But, “60%” of what, precisely? Great question! To answer that, we’re going to dive into the real crux of this legal action, which is the temporary restraining order. The restraining order, referred to as a TRO or injunction, is temporary, but still very potentially damaging to sellers. An e-commerce operation, very obviously, depends quite a lot on revenue to operate. Just like any other business! When Volkswagen requests that the court approve of an injunction, that’s going to freeze the money in the Defendants’ online accounts. Thus, if you were to reach a direct settlement with VW, you could be keeping around half of your money. 

Don’t Ignore the Volkswagen Trademark Infringement Lawsuit!

Alternatively, those who don’t respond to the lawsuit properly could end up in even deeper water. See, sellers who fail to respond to the court or otherwise acknowledge that they’re being sued may have bigger problems. Any Defendant who doesn’t respond may have to then deal with a Default Judgment. A DJ may result in penalties and/or fines and is generally not something even a lawyer can get overturned. Needless to say, a Default Judgment is a severe and unfriendly thing. What’s more, the lack of a response could also give the court reason to award the entirety of your frozen funds to the Plaintiff! Are you interested in essentially handing over your hard-earned income to Volkswagen? We’ll assume most sellers don’t want that to happen. And if that’s your position on the issue, Stockman & Poropat, PLLC wants to work with you! 

Put it this way – an e-commerce business requires funds to operate and the temporary restraining order that freezes those funds could put you out of business. Volkswagen has filed this action to stop the sale of counterfeit goods to consumers online. Guilty of what the Plaintiff asserts or not, the allegations, which comprise the lawsuit, will affect you. You’ll likely want to bolster your e-commerce operation against VW’s pressure as best you can. Relying on an intellectual property lawyer will enable you to do just that. Each seller’s amount of funds will vary, but each and every seller will have to deal with the restraining order. 

Volkswagen Trademark Action | Volkswagen Sues Sellers Over Counterfeit Audi Products

Here’s some of Volkswagen’s allegations of trademark infringement by what they’ve deemed a “counterfeit network:”

Defendants facilitate sales by designing e-commerce stores operating under the Seller Aliases so that they appear to unknowing consumers to be authorized online retailers, outlet stores, or wholesalers.

Many Defendants also deceive unknowing consumers by using the Audi Trademarks without authorization within the content, text, and/or meta tags of their e-commerce stores to attract various search engines crawling the Internet looking for websites relevant to consumer searches for Audi Products. 

E-commerce store operators like Defendants regularly register or acquire new seller aliases for the purpose of offering for sale and selling Counterfeit Audi Products. Such seller alias registration patterns are one of many common tactics used by e-commerce store operators like Defendants to conceal their identities and the full scope and interworking of their counterfeiting operation, and to avoid being shut down. 

Counterfeit Audi Products for sale by the Seller Aliases bear similar irregularities and indicia of being counterfeit to one another, suggesting that the Counterfeit Audi Products were manufactured by and come from a common source and that Defendants are interrelated.

Contact our team at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC today for a free initial consultation! 

Download the legal complaint below:

Up next you can read about how the NBA Targeted E-Commerce Sellers in a New Trademark Lawsuit (June 2025).