A lawyer for a high-fashion jeans company hopes the first significant prosecution for counterfeit clothing will deter other retailers from ripping off designer brands.
Two Auckland distributors were sentenced at the North Shore District Court on Wednesday to three months' home detention and each ordered to pay $20,000 in reparation for selling thousands of pairs of fake True Religion brand jeans.
The jeans company's lawyer, Earl Gray, says the couple sold the fake Chinese-manufactured jeans at pop-up stores on the North Shore and Ponsonby for hundreds of dollars less than the original American-made ones.
The real jeans sell for $450, but the fake ones were only $150.
Mr Gray says the loss in profit for the company could be up to $250,000, but accepts the pair were only capable of paying a smaller fee.
He says there has also been significant damage to the True Religion brand, as the fake jeans were a much poorer quality.
Mr Gray says while New Zealand does not have a huge counterfeit clothing market - it is significant, and hopes this prosecution sends a clear message to other fake clothing retailers.
