Amazon is being sued by American Eagle for allegedly selling counterfeit Aerie products.

• Amazon is being sued by American Eagle Outfitters for allegedly infringing on its Aerie trademarks.
• Amazon is accused of intentionally misleading customers by showcasing Aerie branding in its advertisements and organic search results.
• For years, brands have accused Amazon of hosting counterfeits on its third-party marketplace.

The e-commerce giant is being sued for trademark infringement, as it is accused of using branding from the Aerie clothing line in search results, leading consumers to believe they were purchasing inferior quality knock-offs.

On Wednesday, American Eagle sued Amazon for "flagrant and unauthorized use" of the Aerie and Offline by Aerie trademarks on its website, in an attempt to mislead customers into thinking the products were available on Amazon, increase traffic to its platform, and sell competing merchandise. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

American Eagle, founded in 1977, launched the Aerie brand in 2006. The company stated that it did not authorize Amazon to sell products from its Aerie line of yoga pants, lingerie, loungewear, and other attire, as it wanted to foster its own brand identity and customer experience.

Amazon's website will display sponsored and organic links to its own knock-off versions of Aerie products when a shopper searches for them on Google, according to a lawsuit filed by American Eagle. These links lead to Amazon webpages that show only duplicates of Aerie's sweatshirts and exercise shorts, the lawsuit alleges. Despite being notified of the infringing products over a month ago, Amazon has continued to relabel them with misspellings of Aerie's trademarks, including "Aeries," "Arie," or "Aries."

"The complaint alleges that these advertisements deceive customers into believing they can shop for Aerie products on Amazon, which is not true since customers cannot purchase Aerie items on the Amazon website."

On Amazon's online marketplace, many of the alleged Aerie knock-offs mentioned in the lawsuit are sold by third-party sellers. Since its launch in 2000, the marketplace has enabled businesses to sell their products on the company's website. With over 5 million sellers, it accounts for more than half of all goods sold on the site.

For years, Amazon has faced complaints about counterfeit products. In 2016, Birkenstock and Daimler AG both took action against Amazon due to the surge in fake products on their platform.

In 2019, Amazon included a warning in its annual financial filing about the increasing threat of third-party sellers selling counterfeit products. Since then, the company has intensified its efforts to combat counterfeits on its platform, establishing a team that pursues legal action against counterfeiters, filing lawsuits, and introducing tools to assist brands in safeguarding their trademarks.

Amazon officials did not promptly respond to a request for comment. The company has previously stated that it prohibits the sale of counterfeits on its platform.

Amazon is being sued by American Eagle for trademark infringement, with the request for an injunction and financial compensation.

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