Sports apparel company files federal lawsuit against online retailers.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Adidas has filed a federal lawsuit against online retailers that it alleges are selling counterfeit goods.
The suit aims to shutter 285 sites.
“Defendants are part of an ongoing scheme to create and maintain an illegal marketplace enterprise on the World Wide Web, which confuses consumers regarding the source of defendants’ goods … and expands the marketplace for illegal, counterfeit versions of plaintiffs’ branded goods while shrinking the legitimate marketplace for plaintiffs’ genuine branded goods,” Adidas said in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit names 10 “Does” as defendants. Adidas and its co-plaintiffs have been unable to determine who operates the sites.
(READ MORE: Portland Business Journal)
The German corporation also put FIFA on notice about its concerns about soccer’s governing body’s bouts with scandal.
Herbert Hainer tells German business daily Handelsblatt “if FIFA manages to reform itself — and from my point of view they are on the right track — we will continue.”
If FIFA falls short, Adidas “will consider what the alternatives are,” Hainer says.
Adidas is FIFA’s longest-standing sponsor. It signed up to provide the ball for the 1970 World Cup and renewed through 2030. FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who the German firm helped bring to the global soccer organization in 1975, has been under pressure to resign.
(READ MORE: AP)
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