I recently came across this article on Mediapost by Wendy Davis detailing a lawsuit filed by Williams-Sonoma against Amazon.
What’s interesting is that Williams-Sonoma is alleging that Amazon is misleading consumers into thinking that is has a partnership with the high-end retailer of home goods, when in fact no relationship exists. In reality, random Amazon sellers are purchasing products from Williams-Sonoma (probably on clearance, or perhaps even stolen), and reselling them on Amazon, which Amazon typically allows. In some cases the products are being resold for more than a person would pay full retain at Williams-Sonoma.
I think Williams-Sonoma has an interesting case here. While I wasn’t able to recreate the specific issue they list in the suit, here’s a quick search I ran on Amazon for “Williams-Sonoma” and some of the top results:
According to the above results, it looks pretty convincing that these are legit Williams-Sonoma products. And the listings say “by William Sonoma”. See the first bit of shadiness? It’s not “Williams-Sonoma”, it’s “Willam Sonoma”. A subtle difference.
I clicked the first product and here’s what I saw:
Looking to the right, I see who actually is selling the product (not Williams-Sonoma and not William Sonoma), but a seller called “SZen”. So I clicked their link and got to their storefront page, where they are selling more than 400+ randomly assorted items (kind of like an eBay store.)
Here’s the store description:
Two other people are selling the same product, presumably just like SZen, they just acquired it and are reselling it.
One has to wonder, is the product even legit? I think Williams-Sonoma (with an “S”) has a legit claim.
