Facebook, Instagram are hot spots for fake Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Chanel

A file photo of a fake LVMH handbag is displayed to the photographer outside a Louis Vuitton store in Maryland, US. Meta’s platforms have emerged as hot spots for counterfeit offenders who exploit their range of social and private messaging tools to reach users, according to interviews with academics, industry groups and counterfeit investigators. — Reuters

NEW YORK/MILAN: Facebook owner Meta Platforms is struggling to stop counterfeiters from pushing fake luxury goods from Gucci to Chanel across its social media apps, according to research and interviews, as the company barrels into ecommerce.

Its platforms have emerged as hot spots for counterfeit offenders who exploit their range of social and private messaging tools to reach users, according to interviews with academics, industry groups and counterfeit investigators, who likened brands’ attempts at policing services like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp as a game of “whack-a-mole”.