Etude House distributor sues Lazada over 'fake' products

MANILA (UPDATE) - The Philippine distributor of Korean brand Etude House has filed criminal charges against online shopping site Lazada over the sale of products online that are allegedly fake.

The distributor, Rosa Fiore House Corporation, said on a Facebook post that the charges were filed against officers of Lazada.com.ph for violating the Intellectual Property Code. Rosa Fioure House Corp. also operates as Etude House Philippines.

"We have not consented to any sale of such products by Lazada.com.ph and and is not in any way connected with the website and therefore cannot guarantee the authenticity and/or genuineness of the product sold by the said website," Etude House Philippines said in the statement.

The statement added that Rosa Fiore House Corporation had filed "criminal charges against the responsible corporate officers of Lazada.com.ph for violations of Sections 155, 168 and 169 of the Intellectual Property Code due to the selling and/or facilitating the sale of fake and/or counterfeit Etude House of Korea product before the Office of the City Prosecutor of Makati which had been docketed as NPS DOCKET NO. XV-05-INV-15G2846," it added.

Etude House is a Korean cosmetics brand launched in the Philippines in 2009. It now has more than 40 stores nationwide.

Rocket Internet-owned Lazada, on the other hand, is one of the top B2C eCommerce market places in Southeast Asia.

In a statement, Lazada said it has already removed the merchant offering Etude House products on the site after investigating the counterfeit allegations.

"We have conducted our investigation into the Marketplace merchant offering Etude House products on Lazada.com.ph. We have found that there were valid questions around the authenticity of the offering, and the merchant has been promptly removed," the company said.

Lazada also assured its customers that feedback regarding products is taken seriously, saying it "has a zero tolerance policy towards non-compliant sellers."

"In the event of exceptional cases of suspicious products being sold on our platform, we take decisive action, including investigating the merchants and removing the products from our site," Lazada said.

The online shopping site maintained that it is following its money back return policy to assure customers that they will receive the right product that is new, genuine, and in good quality.

The company confirmed that there is an ongoing legal proceeding between Lazada Philippines and Rosa Fiore House, but noted that it is "in no position to comment on the development or outcome of this."