Fake Louis Vuitton bags to imitation Hermès Birkins: how counterfeits are still destroying luxury brand reputations in the e-commerce age

Fakes are as old as luxury brands themselves. Famously, the more complicated Louis Vuitton monogram was created in 1896 by Georges Vuitton (son of Louis) in an effort to trounce those who were attempting to counterfeit his father’s original bags, which had already acquired cult status.

Despite many of the in-person “fake markets” having now been eliminated across the world, the fake problem has nevertheless become even more threatening for many luxury brands – and not just because of e-commerce. Many luxury brands have reported falling victim to schemes in which shoppers buy legitimate products, say a handbag, in a brand store, just to return days later with a fake for a refund. Some of these fakes are almost identical to the original, so that even the store staff can’t tell them apart. The result? A legitimate customer buys the seeming original days later, not knowing that they have a fake.

With the growth of third-party retailers selling rare used bags – such as the Hermès Birkin – at enormous premiums sometimes even compared to new bags, the risk of highly sophisticated fakes entering the market only compounds. After all, the fakes offer huge profit margins to their illegal and illegitimate sellers.