Tackling counterfeits
A label usually spots counterfeits on a screen first. A customer forwards a screenshot of an online shop selling a coat that looks suspiciously like yours. On Vinted, bags with your logo suddenly appear at a third of the price. In the Netherlands, counterfeits of a fashion brand or design are tackled with a cease-and-desist letter, interim injunction proceedings with recovery of full legal costs (Article 1019h of the Dutch Code of Civil Procedure), a free application for action by Dutch Customs (Regulation (EU) No 608/2013) and a notice to the platform under Article 16 of the Digital Services Act. The route depends on what has been copied and where the product comes from. At Liaise we tell you up front what a step costs and what it can achieve.
Spotted a copy of your design or fakes with your logo? Call 020 675 88 21 or send us the screenshots. Response within one working day.
Fakes with your logo or a copy of your design
When tackling counterfeits, it matters a great deal what exactly has been taken. If the product carries your trade mark or a logo that can’t be told apart from it, it’s trade mark infringement. As the trade mark owner you can then prohibit others from offering, importing or stocking those products (Article 2.20(2) and (3) BCIP). The logo speaks for itself, so the argument is rarely about the infringement as such.
A copy under a different name is harder. You first have to establish that your design is protected, by copyright, a registered design, the unregistered EU design or, as a last resort, slavish imitation (slaafse nabootsing). That argument takes time. Under protecting a clothing design you can read which right applies from which moment.
Securing evidence before you approach the seller
Sometimes an online shop goes offline within the hour once a letter arrives. So first record what can be seen. Take screenshots showing the date and URL, save the listing on the platform and make a test purchase, keeping the invoice and the payment details. With an anonymous seller, have a bailiff record the screenshots.
In interim injunction proceedings in 2025, a scarf brand was able to show in this way that a new online shop could be traced, through a Vinted account, a phone number and a bank account, to a seller who had promised to stop after an earlier cease-and-desist letter.
Then comes the cease-and-desist letter. Besides demanding that the sales stop, ask who made or supplied the products and how many have been sold. If the seller refuses, the court can order that disclosure of origin and distribution channels (Articles 2.22(4) and 3.18(4) BCIP, Article 28(9) of the Dutch Copyright Act). The supplier’s name takes you to the next link in the chain.
Interim injunction against counterfeits: a ban, the suppliers and full legal costs
If the counterfeits stay on sale, you ask the preliminary relief judge (voorzieningenrechter) for a ban in interim injunction proceedings (Article 254 of the Dutch Code of Civil Procedure, in Dutch). You have to show that your case is urgent, which is not difficult with counterfeits that are still on sale.
The preliminary relief judge in Utrecht showed on 5 August 2025 how that plays out in fashion (ECLI:NL:RBMNE:2025:4185, in Dutch). The case concerned a Dutch scarf brand that is now stocked by the Bijenkorf department store. After earlier proceedings, the brand again saw scarves with its own logo turning up on Instagram, Vinted and anonymous online shops. The court imposed a ban backed by a penalty payment (dwangsom) of €500 a day, up to a maximum of €25,000. The seller had to disclose within fourteen days who had made or supplied the scarves, checked by a chartered accountant, and pay the brand’s full legal costs.
That last order is typical of intellectual property cases. There, the losing party in principle pays the winner’s reasonable and proportionate costs, including lawyers’ fees (Article 1019h of the Dutch Code of Civil Procedure). This applies to trade marks, designs and copyright. If your claim rests on slavish imitation alone, the rule doesn’t apply, because Article 1019 of the Code does not list that ground.
If every day of delay causes harm you can’t recover, the court can also grant a ban without hearing the seller, sometimes against security (Article 1019e of the Code). With the court’s leave you can also have the counterfeits and the related documents seized as evidence (Article 1019b). A judgment is not yet money in your account. If the seller has nothing, the legal costs and the penalty payment stay on paper.
If you don’t start the main proceedings within the period the court sets after the interim injunction, the seller can have the ban lapse (Article 1019i).
The application for action by Dutch Customs for shipments from outside the EU
If the counterfeits come from outside the EU, Dutch Customs can detain the shipments. To make that happen, you file an application for action on a standard European form (Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 608/2013). The application can be based on a trade mark, a design or copyright. Once granted, it applies for up to a year and can be extended (Articles 11 and 12). With an EU trade mark or EU design, one application can cover action in several member states; for a Benelux trade mark or Benelux design the application is national (Article 4).
If Customs detains a shipment, you’re notified and have ten working days to confirm that it’s an infringement and that you agree to destruction. Within that time you can also start proceedings instead (Article 23(1) and (3)). If the recipient doesn’t respond within that time, Customs may assume consent. For small consignments, such as single parcels from an online shop, you can ask in your application for a procedure in which Customs destroys the goods itself (Article 26).
Storage and destruction are at your expense (Article 29). If it later turns out there was no infringement, the owner of the goods can hold you liable (Article 28).
For labels that have their collections made abroad, there’s one more limit. Customs does not act against goods your own manufacturer made with your consent, even when they are extra pieces on top of the quantity ordered (Article 1(5)).
Reporting counterfeits on bol, Vinted or Instagram through notice and takedown
If the counterfeits are on a platform, a notice is often the quickest step. Since the Digital Services Act, every platform that hosts content from users must have a notice procedure (Article 16(1) DSA). On bol, the Dutch marketplace, it’s called notice and takedown.
In your notice, explain why the product is counterfeit, with the registration number of your trade mark or design. Add the exact URL of each listing, your name and email address and a statement that you are making the notice in good faith (Article 16(2)). A notice built like this means the platform knows about the counterfeits (Article 16(3)). It has to send you an acknowledgement of receipt and then tell you what it has decided (Article 16(4) and (5)).
If the same seller keeps reappearing under a new name, the court can order the platform to stop providing its services to that seller (Articles 2.22(6) and 3.18(6) BCIP, Article 26d of the Dutch Copyright Act). A platform that sells to consumers must also have recorded each trader’s name, address and payment account in advance (Article 30(1) DSA).
Arrangements with your factory or manufacturer on overproduction
Some counterfeits come from the factory that also makes your collection. Extra pieces reach the market through the back door. Or your pattern turns up in another brand’s line. Because Customs does not act against overproduction by your own manufacturer, your production contract has to do that job.
Record that the patterns, moulds and labels belong to you and that the manufacturer returns or destroys them after the last order. Agree how many pieces may be made and what happens to misprints and surplus, with proof of destruction. A penalty per piece sold outside the agreement works better than damages you first have to substantiate. Also provide that the manufacturer won’t pass the work to a subcontractor without your consent and that you may come and inspect.
As the trade mark owner, you can also prohibit anyone from putting your trade mark on labels without your consent (Article 2.20(5) BCIP).
More on contracts with factories and shops →
When Customs detains your shipment or a brand accuses you of selling counterfeits
A shop that buys in good faith can still end up with counterfeits in its stock. If Customs detains a shipment for you, you have ten working days to say that you do not agree to destruction (Article 23(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) No 608/2013). After that period, Customs assumes consent.
If you receive a cease-and-desist letter because you are said to be selling counterfeits, take the product off sale while you find out where it came from. Keep your purchase invoices. You have to stop, even if you didn’t know. The trade mark owner can only claim your profits if you acted in bad faith (Article 2.21(4) BCIP).
Anti-counterfeiting for fashion brands: how a lawyer approaches it
We start with the evidence and with the question which right is strongest: the trade mark, a registered design or copyright. Then we choose the step that fits the seller; sometimes a notice to the platform is enough on its own. If a seller carries on, a letter follows and then the court. For counterfeits coming from outside the EU, we file the application with Dutch Customs for you, so that Customs can stop the next shipment.
Because in anti-counterfeiting the same seller often comes back under a different name, we ask about the supplier at every step.
Spotted counterfeits of your brand or design? Get in touch or call 020 675 88 21. Response within one working day.
