Louis Vuitton sues S'pore man for trademark infringement, awarded S$510,000 in damages

A Singapore man has to pay Louis Vuitton (LVM) over half a million dollars in damages after the Instagram seller was found to have been peddling counterfeit luxury goods.

LVM was initially awarded S$200,000 in 2023. They found 121 instances of infringement involving LVM's registered trademarks.

Here are the trademarks:

The seller, Ng Hoe Seng, operated online stores under the Instagram handles "emcase_sg" and later "emcrafts_sg".

LVM made trap purchases of 12 of the products in 2022, and later one more product in 2023 when they continued offering the goods for sale.

They then sued Ng for trademark infringement, and the judgment was in their favour.

LVM then appealed the judgment in 2023, saying damages were too low.

Ng did not show up in court nor contest the proceedings.

The judge said that the most aggravating factor of all is Ng's conduct throughout the proceedings.

"He was evasive and uncooperative, failed to make an appearance and only participated in the present appeal."

They found that the man had persisted in advertising the offending goods even after LVM's letter and had shown recalcitrant behaviour.

In recalculating damages, the court grouped the goods into four broad categories based on several factors, including the quantum of sales, the price disparity, and LVM deals in the same type of goods.

The damages awarded are as follows.