Tiffany & Co. (TIF) said Thursday that its subsidiary Tiffany and Company has filed suit against Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) to prevent further sales of counterfeit diamond engagement rings and for damages associated with prior sales.
The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and alleges trademark infringement, dilution, counterfeiting, unfair competition, injury to business reputation, false and deceptive business practices and false advertising.
According to Tiffany, a customer alerted the company in November to the sale of what was promoted on in-store signs as "Tiffany" diamond engagement rings at a Costco store in Huntington Beach, California.
Tiffany said it immediately launched an investigation, and later learned that for many years, and without Tiffany's knowledge, Costco had apparently been selling different styles of rings that it has falsely identified on in-store signage as "Tiffany."
"The rings are not in fact Tiffany rings, nor are they manufactured by, approved by, licensed by, or otherwise in any way properly associated with Tiffany. In this way, Costco led its members to believe they were purchasing authentic Tiffany products at significant discounts, when in fact, that was simply not true," Tiffany said.
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