- Ng Hoe Seng, using Instagram, sold fake Louis Vuitton goods, leading the French fashion house to conduct sting operations.
- The High Court ordered Ng to pay $200,000 in damages, deeming LV’s $2.9 million claim “grossly excessive”.
- Justice Gill criticised Ng’s deceptive tactics, including using “influencers”, and rebuked him for refusing to take part in the legal proceedings.
SINGAPORE – An Instagram seller who sold fake Louis Vuitton items as authentic and ghosted the High Court during court proceedings has been ordered to pay $200,000 in damages to the French luxury fashion house for trademark infringements.
Mr Ng Hoe Seng, operating under Instagram accounts “emcase_sg” and “emcrafts_sg”, sold counterfeit goods such as phone cases, passport covers, card holders and purses through the social media platform. The fakes were passed off as genuine and sold at a fraction of the price of the real items – a fake passport cover, for instance, was priced at $159, compared with $560 to $945 for the real thing.
Louis Vuitton Malletier (LVM) discovered the infringements in July 2022 and conducted a sting operation. A representative made test purchases worth $2,100 from Mr Ng’s first Instagram account “emcase_sg”. LVM confirmed the goods were counterfeit and issued a cease-and-desist letter in March 2023.
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