Sandal company Birkenstock won a court case over Amazon online store last week. A court in Germany ruled that the online store giant should stop using misspellings of the sandal brand name as Google AdWords in the hopes of luring unsuspecting consumers to the site.
The German sandal-makers complained that having "Brikenstock," "Bierkenstock," "Birkenstok," or any variation of search misspelling as AdWords tend to lead the customers to the wrong products. Birkenstock reasoned that such misdirection could lead to sale of counterfeit or low quality sandals. They said that it would damage the brand name reputation if such practices are to be sustained.
While the ruling was only brought down last Dec. 20, Birkenstock actually pulled out their products out of the online store earlier that month. They claimed that Amazon was not proactive in protecting the interests of the brand name.
The sandal-making company was firm in their stand that Amazon is not doing anything to alleviate the spread of fake Birkenstock sandals. Misspellings of the sandal brand generate revenue for AdSense, Google's ad-serving platform.
Oliver Reichert, Bikernstock's chief, implied that Amazon is deliberately ignoring the misspelled ads. He told German magazine Der Spiegel that "For us, Amazon is complicit."
Meanwhile, spokespeople from Amazon decline to comment on the matter, nor on the court case. In their defense, they simply said that the online store giant prohibits the sale of "fraudulent products."
A spokesman for Amazon also added that they are neither lenient nor lax when it comes to product authenticity.
"We work diligently with vendors, sellers and rights owners to detect and prevent fraudulent products reaching our marketplace," the Amazon spokesperson said.
Reuters reached the German court for comment, but spokespeople from the court declined to respond.
It should be noted that the United States branch of the sandal company also cut ties with Amazon in 2016.
