Sellers Sued, FCA Files Federal Trademark Infringement Lawsuit
Are you feeling pressured to settle because FCA is suing you for counterfeiting?! Don’t simply accept whatever FCA may offer you just because you’re intimidated or scared. You should know that empowering yourself is as easy as making a call to our team at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC. Big brands like FCA use the opportunity of lawsuits like this to get as much from sellers as they can. Our firm wants YOU to know that we’re passionate about e-commerce and intend to save you time and money!
Oftentimes, online sellers receive notice that they’re getting sued for trademark infringement and react instead of respond. That is, they might ignore the lawsuit, not taking the notice seriously, and/or choose to not address the allegations therein. Don’t just get frustrated and throw your hands up in the air! Take action, retain an attorney, and move forward with your e-commerce business. Getting upset is perfectly reasonable, but don’t jump ahead and consider yourself defeated. What’s the best way to appropriately deal with the FCA trademark lawsuit? Respond!
Now, we mean respond in the sense of addressing the claims by way of one of our attorneys, for example. But, we mean “respond” in the literal sense, as well. The FCA counterfeit lawsuit essentially requires the named Defendants to provide a response. The response submitted to the court functions to inform the court and the Plaintiff that you’re accepting some level of responsibility, instead of maintaining an unresponsive position.
Why is FCA Suing E-Commerce Sellers Again?
That doesn’t mean you’re sending over any sort of admission of guilt! Mainly, the response is meant to keep the court from issuing a Default Judgment against you and your business. And we’re going to assume that none of the Defendants would actually want a Default Judgment! That can be even more disruptive and expensive and is typically difficult to have overturned.
If you’re a Defendant in this FCA trademark infringement lawsuit, you might be wondering what’s the intent behind the brand filing the action in the first place. The intent is to halt anymore sales of counterfeit goods to consumers in the United States. The crux of FCA’s allegations is that the named sellers worked in concert to successfully push unauthorized products on the marketplace. When you review the legal complaint, downloadable at the bottom of the page here, you’ll see that the sellers are described as a “network.”
The Plaintiff has alleged that this network consists of enforcement-evading sellers with ill-intent who want to rip off the American consumer. Within that context, FCA says the network has cost them financially and in terms of reputation. All of the above is the basis for the filing of this latest trademark infringement action!
Who Will Be Held Accountable in the FCA Counterfeit Lawsuit?
Circling back for a second… Regarding guilt and the extent to which the Defendants will actually be held legally accountable for the allegations: this is a matter unique to each named seller! While the allegations will rather affect all of the Defendants, the guilt, outcome, and/or resolution will vary from seller to seller. It’ll be beneficial for your business to have legal counsel at this time, so that you don’t absorb any sort of unnecessary expenditure. In some instances, a seller can clear their business of all allegations, in others it may be more complicated. During our free initial consultation, we can gauge what legal strategy may work for you!
And when we say that ALL of the named sellers will be affected by the allegations, we’re referring to the temporary restraining order. What’s that?! The Plaintiff will have the court approve of a temporary injunction, which will freeze the Defendants’ online seller accounts. In effect, this freeze will lock up the named sellers’ marketplace accounts, so as to stop further potential unauthorized sales. This restraining order isn’t anything to sniffle at, either. Because the injunction will render your funds inaccessible, it could throw your e-commerce operation way off its current momentum. For some sellers, this could shove them to the edge of bankruptcy. However your business is impacted, you’ll want to retain legal counsel!
FCA’s Allegations, Online Sellers Will Be Impacted
To broaden the perspective on the legal details themselves, below we’ll provide a few selections from the legal complaint:
FCA has identified numerous fully interactive, e-commerce stores offering Counterfeit Products on online marketplace platforms such as PayPal, Amazon, eBay, Temu, and Walmart, including the e-commerce stores operating under the Seller Aliases.
Third party service providers like those used by Defendants do not adequately subject new sellers to verification and confirmation of their identities, allowing counterfeiters to “routinely use false or inaccurate names and addresses when registering with these e-commerce platforms.”4 Counterfeiters hedge against the risk of being caught and having their websites taken down from an e-commerce platform by preemptively establishing multiple virtual store-fronts.
Defendants also deceive unknowing consumers by using one or more FCA 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 FCA Products.
Contact our team at Stockman & Poropat, PLLC today for a free initial consultation!
Download the legal complaint below:
If you’re keen to consume more intellectual property infringement content, check out the latest 2025 Volkswagen Group of America Lawsuit Aimed at E-Commerce Sellers.
