I wrote a Friend Friday post on Copying in the Fashion Industry in September fessing up that I bought two counterfeit handbags at a local flea market, a Louis Vuitton and a Coach. I actually was going to the Flea Market because I heard that they carried pure shea butter and look what else I wound up buying, a handbag.

My husband came across an article today entitled, “Coach sues St. Louis County flea market, claiming counterfeit item,” in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.  Coach Inc. filed a Federal Trademark Infringement lawsuit against Jack Frison, owner of Frison’s Flea Market alleging that vendors are selling counterfeit handbags.

The St. Louis Post Dispatch said that Coach was tipped off by a former Coach employee  who worked at the Frontenac Mall.  The article said that she called Coach after she went to the Flea Market for the first time.  Wonder what she was going there for?

Photo credit of Jack Frison:Jennifer Silverberg

Photo from Riverfront Times website

When I bought the counterfeit handbags from Frison Flea Market last year, it was the first time I went into this smoke infested smelling place. When my hubby and I walked in we  paid $1.50 each before we could enter.  I remember written on the walls that nothing sold  in the market was illegal or counterfeit. Is this Mr. Frison for real?  Apparently so, in the St. Louis Post Dispatch he was quoted saying,

“The people they need to get are the people doing it, not me,” he said. “I don’t use Coach purses and I don’t wear Tommy Hilfiger.”

It is not the point that he doesn’t use the merchandise that’s being sold in his Flea Market. It is the fact that he is accepting the rental money from the vendors to sell the counterfeit handbags. In the article he states that the vendors are probably selling counterfeit merchandise.  He does own this Flea Market, right?

He is acting like an innocent bystander when he is a contributor to the problem.  According to the article he has owned this Flea Market for 28 years so he should be able to have whatever kind of vendor he would want.

It is a shame that Coach officials and investigators had to fly to Saint Louis on two separate occasions to purchase these counterfeit handbags to prove a point that it is just like stealing someone’s identity.

Mr. Frison in the article said, “All I can do is tell them it’s against the law. I can’t make them stop.”

He can make the vendors stop. That quote is a cop-out because he owns the Flea Market.  He takes the rent money for a table and a chair according to the article. He can make them stop and set in example that selling counterfeit handbags is stealing because they are not giving credit where credit is due.

This is such a huge problem and as much as we are tempted to buy that cheap bag because it has those logos on it and it makes us look like we are somebody.
DON’T DO IT!

*I will be following this story and posting more details as they become available.