Toms is placing extra emphasis on the ‘TM’ in its name with a new trademark-related legal complaint.
The shoe company is suing Amazon seller Bloom Trading Inc. and Arsanious Youssef, its CEO, in California’s Central District Court over alleged trademark infringement and unfair competition. In the complaint, filed June 5, Toms alleges that the storefront has turned a profit off unauthorized—and “potentially counterfeit”—products.
According to the complaint, first reported by The Fashion Law, Bloom Trading is an unauthorized reseller, which Toms heavily frowns upon because of its authorized reseller program. The company says it mandates resellers to abide by its quality control requirements, which include inspecting products for “damage, defects, evidence of tampering and other non-conformance and remov[ing] all such products from inventory,” prohibiting sellers from shipping damaged products, flagging quality issues to Toms and more.
This program, the company claims, helps “avoid consumer confusion and ensure that customers receive genuine Toms products,” in turn protecting the company’s reputation.
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But, Toms contends, consumers who have purchased from Bloom Trading may not receive the real deal.
Part of the argument Toms makes for proving the products Bloom Trading allegedly sold were inauthentic is that the shoes do not include the “Toms Guarantee.” The warranty allows customers to request a replacement, repair or refund if quality issues or defects occur, and Toms products sold through its own channels and authorized sellers’ channels include that guarantee.
Without that guarantee, it asserts, there is “a material component of genuine Toms products” missing.
“Consumers who purchase Toms products with the Toms Guarantee receive the peace of mind that they are receiving a good quality product, that Toms stands behind the product,” the company wrote in the complaint.
According to Toms, none of its resellers have permission to sell on any online marketplace, Amazon included. It goes further to say that the storefront’s alleged practices could likely cause confusion, mistake or deception for consumers hoping to buy real Toms products.
Toms states that, upon finding out Bloom Trading had been selling spurious goods, it sent a cease-and-desist letter to the company. Allegedly, Bloom Trading “did not respond to this letter and continued to sell products bearing the Toms Trademarks on the Amazon storefront.”
Toms claims that, after the alleged lack of contact from Bloom Trading, it sent a second cease-and-desist letter, which it also did not receive a response to, causing it to take further legal action in the form of a lawsuit.
“Defendants’ disregard of Toms’ cease-and-desist letters and continued sale of non-genuine products despite being informed of their unlawful conduct demonstrates that they are acting intentionally, willfully and maliciously,” Toms argues in its complaint.
Toms believes that Bloom Trading’s alleged actions have caused damage to the brand, which it says is evident by the product reviews the products have received on Amazon’s marketplace.
According to screenshots pictured in the complaint, customers allegedly had issues with mold on the shoes, “fake” versions of the shoes they bought, shoes being worn by someone else and other quality issues.
“I clearly got someone’s return which is absolutely ridiculous. I paid for new shoes, not pre-owned ones. There are dirty toe prints in the shoes, dirt on the bottoms and even a rock stuck in the tread. Absolutely disgusting,” one user purportedly wrote in the Amazon reviews.
Another, the documents show, wrote, “Fake! I was expecting original [Toms]… No wonder it’s so cheap!”
Toms claims in its complaint that the 12 reviews it put in its legal documents represent “only a small sample of the negative reviews of Toms products that have been posted on the Amazon platform.”
In return for the damage Toms claims it has seen from the purported sale of the inauthentic products, it seeks monetary damages and a permanent injunction from the court demanding that Bloom Trading stop selling Toms products—or counterfeits bearing the company’s name.
Toms declined to comment.
