Record compensation for Louis Vuitton: $584 million, but it will likely not collect it, however. The one owing the sum Westgate Discount Mall, a kind of indoor flea market based in Atlanta. Authorities seized at the location, in a single instance, 250,000 counterfeit products stowed inside 18 tractor-trailers. It’s Louis Vuitton’s second legal victory against these kinds of fake markets.
One of the largest in history
This is one of the largest settlements in the history of counterfeiting in the US. In August 2021, in Atlanta, law enforcement officers conduct a raid on the Westgate Discount Mall, a building used as a flea market, where they detected and seized 250,000 counterfeit products, including 72,000 with the Louis Vuitton brand name. In the complaint, the French brand describes the incident as “one of the largest seizures of counterfeit goods with Louis Vuitton trademarks in U.S. history”.
31 notices, 20 warning letters
After the incident, LVMH’s flagship brand claims to have sent at least 31 notices to Westgate regarding specific tenants it deemed responsible for selling fake products. It also allegedly delivered at least 20 cease-and-desist letters directly to Westgate’s tenants. Unsuccessfully, in April 2023, Louis Vuitton decided to take legal action against Westgate, its owner Basirou Kebbay, and CEO Aaron Kebe.
Record compensation
On September 22, 2025, the judgment came. Victoria Marie Calvert, a Georgia district court judge, sentences Westgate Discount Mall to the maximum possible damages. According to The Fashion Law, which first reported the news, the ruling has a strong deterrent signal. Allowing the sale of counterfeit products is not only damaging to reputation, but also financially catastrophic. For Louis Vuitton, the ruling is a symbolic victory of its approach set at zero tolerance toward counterfeits. Symbolic because it seems unlikely that it will be able to collect the full $584 million.
The second legal victory
For the LVMH label, it’s the second legal victory in a matter of days after the one it won against the flea market in Saint-Ouen, a Parisian suburb considered the epicenter of counterfeiting in France.
Photo from Shutterstock
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